CNN, citing five sources familiar with US intelligence, reports that in recent
weeks Iran has sharply hardened storage of its near‑weapons‑grade highly
enriched uranium (HEU), deliberately collapsing tunnels and planting explosive
mines at entrances, making physical access more difficult, dangerous and
time‑consuming than about a month ago. About a month earlier then‑President
Trump had publicly suggested he might order US forces to seize the material;
Iran’s measures complicate any removal‑and‑destroy agreement and raise who would
assume the hazardous excavation. Even Iranian personnel would face a hazardous
retrieval requiring heavy excavation equipment and demining.
