In this ITV News explainer, correspondent Geraint Vincent breaks down the race to neutralise Iran’s missing uranium stockpile.

Deep beneath the rubble of Iran’s bombed nuclear facilities lies an estimated 440kg of near-weapons-grade uranium. Following massive US and Israeli airstrikes in June 2025, much of this vast radioactive stockpile is now thought to be entombed underground, and the Iranian government claims it has no plans to retrieve it.

With the material enriched to 60%—dangerously close to the 90% threshold required to create nuclear warheads—the United States military faces an unprecedented logistical nightmare. How do you secure nearly 1,000 pounds of toxic, radioactive material buried hundreds of feet beneath hostile territory?