What Is Pickaxe Mountain, Iran’s Underground Nuclear Site That Trump Is Threatening?

Acton tells TIME it remains a “legitimate concern” that Pickaxe Mountain could potentially be used for “more than just secure storage.”

“The concern is, whether or not it was developed as an enrichment plant, the fear is now that it would be used as one,” he says.

Rafael Grossi, chief of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog IAEA, told PBS in March that Iran had previously “announced its intention to have nuclear activity” at Pickaxe Mountain, referring to it as “part of their quite systematic intention to put their most sensitive facilities underground.”

Grossi said the IAEA inspectors had not been granted access to the Pickaxe Mountain site.

Additionally, the nuclear watchdog has been unable to independently verify Iran’s centrifuge capacity and production since 2021, so Tehran may have reserves despite strikes over the last two years.

With the destruction of Iran’s other centrifuge related facilities, “the Pickaxe Mountain complex is a potential candidate site for any Iranian reconstitution of its centrifuge program, from centrifuge component production to centrifuge assembly to uranium enrichment,” ISIS stated in November 2025.