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Iran said Israel attacked its Arak heavy water reactor, a nuclear facility about 155 miles (250 kilometers) southwest of Tehran, according to state media agency IRIB.
Two projectiles were fired at the facility around 6 a.m. local time, IRIB said. The facility has not been seriously damaged and there is no radiation, it reported.
Earlier Thursday, the IDF issued an evacuation warning to residents near the Arak facility, saying: “Your presence in this area puts your life at risk.”
The Arak heavy water reactor was a focus of the 2015 nuclear deal with the US and other powers, because heavy water (or deuterium oxide) can be used to produce plutonium – providing Iran with a second pathway to a potential nuclear bomb, beyond enriched uranium.
Under the deal, Iran was required to redesign Arak into a peaceful research facility which could no longer produce weapons-grade plutonium. However, in the years since and following the US withdrawal, Iran has breached some aspects of the deal and no longer allows UN inspectors to monitor its production or stocks of heavy water.
The attack comes almost one week after Israel targeted three Iranian nuclear facilities – Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow – and several top scientists.
