The International Atomic Energy Agency said on 29 March that Iran’s heavy water reactor at Khondab, near the town of Arak, which Tehran reportedly attacked on 27 March, had been severely damaged and was “no longer operational”.
The Israeli military earlier said it had struck the facility, officially known as the Khondab heavy water research reactor. It is at least the second time the reactor has been hit since an Israeli airstrike during the 12-day war in June 2025.
“Defeated: the Arak heavy water plant in central Iran-a key site for producing plutonium for nuclear weapons. The Israel Defense Forces will not allow the Iranian regime to continue advancing its nuclear weapons programme, which poses an existential threat to Israel and the world,” the IDF said in a statement on social network X on March 27.
The IAEA said, “Based on independent analysis of satellite imagery and knowledge of the facility, the IAEA has confirmed that the Khondab Heavy Water Production Plant… Has sustained severe damage and is no longer operational. The facility does not contain declared nuclear material.”
The reactor is part of a vast nuclear complex in central Iran that includes heavy water production facilities, allowing Tehran to use natural uranium as fuel without the need for high levels of enrichment.
28 February The US launched a joint military operation with Israel against Iran. The strikes kill Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and hit the country’s military and nuclear facilities. Iran retaliated by striking US bases and infrastructure of Washington’s Gulf allies.
Since the launch of the operation, Iran has effectively blocked the Strait of Hormuz, which connects the Persian Gulf to the world’s oceans. The Strait is of strategic importance because it is the route through which oil from the oil-producing countries of the Persian Gulf flows to the world market.