US Reportedly Assesses Only a Nuclear Bomb Could Destroy Iran Nuclear Facility

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By Sharon Zhang , Truthout
Published June 20, 2025


President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth along with other guests watch as members of the U.S Army participate in the 250th birthday parade of the U.S. Army on June 14, 2025, in Washington, D.C.

The Pentagon has reportedly assessed that the only weapon that could destroy a nuclear facility in Iran deemed by war hawks to be a key part of Iran’s nuclear program is a nuclear bomb — an intensely ironic finding in a war fought over the pretense of stopping nuclear proliferation. According to U.S. sources cited by The Guardian, defense officials have been told that only a “tactical nuclear weapon” could penetrate deep enough underground to destroy Fordow, a nuclear facility reportedly built inside a mountain in northwestern Iran.

Officials have been discussing using GBU-57s, which are 30,000-pound bombs, to penetrate the facility. This would require the U.S. military to directly strike Iran in a major escalation, as Israel does not possess the bombs or the stealth bomber required to carry out the strike. On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump has said that he will decide within the next two weeks whether he will instruct the military to strike Iran.

President Donald Trump is not considering using a nuclear weapon, The Guardian reported on Wednesday, and it has not been presented as a possibility by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth or by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine. Though it hasn’t been presented to the president, the assessment made by the Pentagon’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency, which specializes in studying weapons of mass destruction, is seemingly on the minds of some defense officials; the efficacy of GBU-57s has reportedly been a topic of “deep contention” among defense officials since the beginning of Trump’s term.

A tactical nuclear weapon has never been used before, and could have disastrous results, causing radioactive nuclear fallout and likely escalating and normalizing the use of nuclear weapons in war. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, warned on Friday that attacks on nuclear facilities like Fordow “should never take place” because of the potential fallout within the country. That such a possibility would even be considered is a show of the glaring double standard of Israel’s U.S.-backed war with Iran — where two of only a handful of nuclear powers in the world would consider it a legitimate act of war to use a nuclear bomb to stop Iran from having one.

https://truthout.org/articles/us-reportedly-assesses-only-a-nuclear-bomb-could-destroy-iran-nuclear-facility/