LAHORE – Web Desk: A newly constructed Iranian nuclear site, located beneath Mount Keling Gzla, is considered by Western intelligence to be the centerpiece of Tehran’s atomic program. But according to a new analysis, it may be effectively indestructible by conventional means.
Writing in Scientific American, Oxford University geologist Professor Richard Walker has revealed that the mountain is composed of “andesite” — a volcanic rock with a Mohs hardness rating of 6 to 7, making it more resistant than steel. Walker described the site as “the strongest of all nuclear facilities in the world.”
The mountain’s geology means that even the US military’s most powerful conventional bunker-buster, the 30,000-pound GBU-57, would only penetrate 50 to 60 feet into the rock. Iranian engineers have built their tunnels at a depth of approximately 362 feet — far below the reach of existing conventional weapons.
The facility is believed to house advanced uranium-enriching centrifuges and possibly weapons-grade uranium, according to US and Israeli intelligence sources.
