The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had struck an inactive nuclear reactor among dozens of targets in Iran, primarily in its capital, Tehran. Forty Israel Air Force jets were involved in the strikes overnight into Thursday, June 19, the IDF said.

The main risk inside the storage facility is the chemical toxicity of uranium hexafluoride gas and fluoride compounds generated in contact with water. The radiological risk from enriched uranium at Natanz is likely to be much smaller than the chemical toxicity from the fluorine.

A reactor in Tehran is a monument to the U.S. relationship with Iran when the country was led by a secular, pro-Western monarch.