Over the past year, U.S. airstrikes have crippled Iran’s nuclear program. Several Iranian nuclear facilities lie in ruins. And Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium — “nuclear dust,” as President Trump calls it — is thought to be deeply buried under rubble.
But even after a U.S. bombing raid last June and more than five weeks of attacks on Iran since February, one suspected nuclear site remains untouched. Experts say the underground facility, known as Pickaxe Mountain, is buried so deep that it may lie beyond the reach of America’s most powerful bunker-buster bombs.
Experts do not believe the facility is yet complete. But they fear that in the future, Pickaxe Mountain could provide Iran a venue for producing nuclear weapons that is impervious to aerial attack.
As Mr. Trump bombed the country in recent weeks, some Iran hawks pressed him to consider sending Special Forces on a risky ground mission to destroy the facility with planted high explosives. One White House ally recently proposed injecting its halls with chemical contaminants.
Other experts who favor dialogue over conflict call those ideas far-fetched and say that Pickaxe Mountain illustrates the impossibility of relying on force alone to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear bomb.
Now that Mr. Trump is pursuing negotiations with Iran, both camps agree that any deal must include a provision ensuring that Pickaxe Mountain is permanently shut down.
