On January 31, 2022, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that Iran has moved sensitive centrifuge manufacturing capabilities from Karaj to an unspecified site at Esfahan. According to the report, the new workshop to make centrifuge rotor tubes and bellows was not operating as of January 24, 2022.
Recent reporting that Iran has moved its centrifuge manufacturing capabilities from the TESA/TABA manufacturing facility near Karaj to Esfahan led us to examine the main Esfahan site. In this report, we focus our visual analysis on new activity at the existing underground tunnel complex at Esfahan, which was constructed in 2004-2006. It has three tunnel entrance areas leading under a mountain that is over 6000 feet tall. The tunnel entrance areas remained relatively unchanged for years; however, that changed in late 2020 or early 2021 when commercially available satellite images showed new construction activity at all three tunnel locations, leading to additions of metal structures, possibly for entrance shielding and protection from rockfall, at all four visible tunnel portals.
