Iran Claims No Heavy Damage When Israel Attacks Nukir Arak Facilities

JAKARTA - Iran says Israel attacked the heavy Arak water reactor, a nuclear facility about 250 kilometers southwest of Tehran. There was no serious damage from the attack on Thursday morning.

The IRIB state news agency, as reported by CNN, reported that two projectiles were fired at the Arak nuclear facility at around 06.00 a.m. local time, Thursday, June 19. The facility was not badly damaged and there was no radiation.

Earlier Israel Defense Force (IDF) issued an evacuation warning to residents near the Arak facility.

Heavy water reactor Arak is the focus of the 2015 nuclear deal with the US and other countries, as heavy water or deuterium oxides can be used to produce plutonium give Iran a second path towards a potential nuclear bomb, beyond enriched uranium.

Under the agreement, Iran is required to redesign Arak into a peaceful research facility that can no longer produce weapons-level plutonium.

However, in the years following the US withdrawal, Iran had violated several aspects of the deal and no longer allowed UN inspectors to monitor its production or heavy water stock.

The attack comes nearly a week after Israel targeted three Iranian nuclear facilities Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow and several prominent scientists.