[Music]
iran has been working on a nuclear
program for decades
[Music]
key sites are spread across the country
but most attention is focused on
two natanz and fordo
iran initially hid the existence of both
sites
fueling concerns that it might be
secretly trying to build a nuclear bomb
now both sites are the subject of
intense scrutiny
natanz was first exposed in 2002
these satellite images reveal big
changes at the site
you can see better roads and extensive
new buildings by 2020
while fordo a remote site built deep in
a mountain was exposed
in 2009 by western intelligence again
look at how the buildings and roads
develop as the years pass
what makes these sites important is that
they are where the enrichment of uranium
is taking place
so what exactly is enrichment well it's
the technically challenging process in
which uranium gas
is fed into machines called centrifuges
and this is what they look like slender
silver cylinders
here being shown to iran's president
centrifuges spin the uranium at
incredibly high speeds
this separates out the lighter
uranium-235 atoms from heavier
u-238 atoms
low-enriched uranium is where you have
three to five percent of u-235
this can be used as fuel in a nuclear
power plant
if you keep enriching it so there's a
higher percentage
it can be used in research and medical
applications
and if you enrich it all the way up to
90 percent
then it can be used to make a nuclear
bomb
iran insists its nuclear program is
purely for peaceful purposes
but others fear it is seeking a weapon
today could have been the end of hope on
this issue but now we are starting a new
chapter of hope
an international deal was signed in 2015
it limited iran's stockpile of uranium
and said it could only be enriched to
low
levels less than five percent it limited
to 5 000 the number of centrifuges
and required inspections to ensure iran
complied
the restrictions were set to last for up
to 15 years in return iran was promised
that sanctions would be lifted
but not everyone was happy the iran deal
is a disaster i think it's terrible
one of the worst and most one-sided
transactions
in 2018 then president trump pulled the
us out of the deal
saying it was flawed and after that iran
increased its enrichment activity
these once-secret sites have been at the
heart of a long-running crisis
and what takes place here will determine
when and if
it's resolved
you