27 June 2025 - Vienna, Austria
Radiation levels in the Gulf region remain normal following the 12-day conflict that severely damaged several nuclear facilities in Iran, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said today.
Citing regional data reported regularly to the IAEA through the International Radiation Monitoring System (IRMIS), Director General Grossi noted that this 48-nation network would have detected an important radioactive release from any damaged nuclear power reactor.
“From a nuclear safety perspective, Iran’s Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant and the Tehran Research Reactor represented our main concern as any strike affecting those facilities – including their off-site power lines – could have caused a radiological accident with potential consequences in Iran as well as beyond its borders in the case of the Bushehr plant. It did not happen, and the worst nuclear safety scenario was thereby avoided,” Director General Grossi said.
Stressing again that nuclear facilities should never be attacked, he reiterated the IAEA’s current assessment – based on information received from Iran’s Nuclear Regulatory Authority – that this month’s Israeli and U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear sites would have caused localized radioactive releases inside the impacted facilities and localized toxic effects, but there has been no report of increased off-site radiation levels.
The Director General also emphasised the need for IAEA inspectors to continue their verification activities in Iran, as required under its Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement (CSA) with the Agency.
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The second war by Israel and US on Iran started on February 28, 2026. However, IAEA has not issued any information to date regarding radioactive releases from the attacks on Iranian nuclear sites. Israel and US have claimed that nuclear facilities (enrichment sites and other nuclear weapons sites) have been demolished. I do not understand why there have not been any measurable radioactivity releases. Radioactivity is easily detected.
Where is the truth?
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The United States and Israel have struck Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility, according to its atomic energy organisation.
“Following the criminal attacks by the United States and the usurping Zionist regime against our country, the … Natanz enrichment complex was targeted this morning,” the organisation said in a statement carried by the Tasnim news agency on Saturday.
It added that there was “no leakage of radioactive materials reported” at the Shahid Ahmadi Roshan enrichment facility in Natanz in central Iran, one of the country’s most important uranium enrichment sites, about 220km (135 miles) southeast of Tehran.
No radioactive material was released, Tasnim reported, quoting Iranian officials. There is no danger to the population living near the facility, according to the report.
The Natanz nuclear facility was also targeted by Israel in the 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June 2025.
Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem, reporting from Tehran, said the attack on Iran’s nuclear site was “expected”, noting that destroying Iran’s nuclear capability has been one of Trump’s stated goals.
“According to reports, there is no radiation and there are no leaks”, Hashem said.
He added that Tehran currently has around 400kg of highly enriched uranium, which the West believes Iran could potentially use to produce a weapon.
Hashem also warned that the strike could signal the possibility of further attacks.
Call for restraint
In a post on X, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iran has informed it about the US-Israeli attack on the Natanz site.
No increase in off-site radiation levels was reported, the United Nations nuclear watchdog said, adding that it was looking into the report.
IAEA head Rafael Grossi repeated his “call for military restraint to avoid any risk of a nuclear accident” during the war on Iran.
The White House has said a key objective of the war it launched alongside Israel on February 28 is to prevent Iran from ever acquiring nuclear weapons.
The Natanz site was previously hit in the first week of the 22-day war, and several buildings were damaged, according to satellite images at the time.
The UN nuclear watchdog said on March 3 that the nuclear site suffered “recent damage”, a day after Iran said the underground uranium enrichment plant was attacked.
Nuclear programme
Several experts also agreed that Trump’s objective of destroying Iran’s nuclear capabilities would also be impossible without some form of ground operation.
There have been reports of a few limited strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities since February 28, although the greatest damage was done during US strikes on the Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan sites during the 12-day Israel-Iran war last year.
At the Senate committee hearing on Wednesday, DNI Gabbard appeared to undercut the Trump administration’s justification for abandoning nuclear negotiations with Iran before launching the war.
Gabbard said in her written testimony that Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme was “obliterated” by US strikes last year. “There have been no efforts since then to try to rebuild their enrichment capability,” she said.
Still, nuclear experts have questioned the viability of completely destroying Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
The chief of the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency, Rafael Grossi, has repeatedly warned of the dangers of strikes on nuclear facilities. On Wednesday, in an interview with NPR, he said it was unlikely that the war could eliminate the “very vast programme” spread across a “very big country”.
Andreas Krieg, an associate professor at King’s College London, said the limits of the US-Israeli airpower strategy so far have been most apparent in the nuclear issue.
“The coalition can damage facilities, degrade infrastructure and push Iran’s programme back, but it cannot easily eliminate the underlying nuclear problem from the air alone, especially if fuel stocks, know-how and hidden capacity survive,” he told Al Jazeera.
“That does not make boots on the ground inevitable, but it does mean that if Washington ever decides that complete elimination rather than delay is the goal, then air power will probably not be enough,” he said.