The Khondab heavy water plant, which was part of Iran’s nuclear program, is now offline, the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed on Sunday.
The IAEA said the heavy water plant, which has “no declared” nuclear material, suffered “severe damage” from an Israeli strike on Friday and is “no longer operational.” The nuclear watchdog made that determination based on satellite imagery and previous knowledge of the plant.
Israel bombed the heavy water plant last week, describing it as a “a key plutonium production site for nuclear weapons” that Iran had sought to rebuild after Israel struck it last June during the 12-Day War.
The plant is part of Iran’s Arak Nuclear Complex, which has a heavy water reactor. That reactor was “rendered inoperable” by Iran in accordance with the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
But concerns remained about the facility, as heavy water continued to be produced. The water, while not able to create a nuclear weapon by itself, can produce plutonium, which has been used to make nuclear weapons.
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The news is a blow to Tehran’s nuclear program, which has been bombed extensively during the war so far.
Besides the heavy water plant, Israel also struck a uranium extraction plant in Yazd, located in central Iran, on Friday. Iran is known to have stockpiles of enriched uranium, some of which was nearly weapons-grade level last summer.