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'A million things could go wrong' - why seizing Iran's uranium would be so risky for the US

On 31 March 2026, the BBC published 'A million things could go wrong' - why seizing Iran's uranium would be so risky for the US, by Daniel Bush and Bernd Debusmann Jr. The article says seizing Iran's enriched uranium was an option President Donald Trump was reportedly considering, and that former defense officials told the BBC it could not be done from the air. Enriched uranium is uranium processed so it can fuel a reactor or, if processed much further, a bomb. An American family should care because the option these experts describe would put US soldiers on the ground inside Iran, for days or weeks, around buried nuclear sites. The BBC says the White House had not announced a decision.

Evidence rating: MODERATE. The ground-troop claim comes from military experts and former US defense officials speaking to the BBC, plus a Wall Street Journal report the BBC cites. The White House, as the BBC reports it, said Trump had not made a final decision.

What the article says

The BBC says American troops storming an underground nuclear site to take Iran's enriched uranium may sound far-fetched, but that it was an option Trump was reportedly considering. The stated aim is to stop Iran from building a nuclear weapon. Experts and former officials told the BBC the operation would be extremely hard. They said it would require ground troops and could take several days or even weeks.

Mick Mulroy, whom the BBC identifies as a former deputy assistant secretary of defence for the Middle East, called removing the stockpile one of the most complicated special operations in history. A special operation is a raid by a small, highly trained force, not a mass army marching in.

The BBC says this is only one option. Another is taking control of Kharg Island, Iran's main oil-export island, to pressure Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. That strait is the narrow sea lane tankers use to leave the Persian Gulf. The BBC also says the threat of new strikes may be meant to push Iran toward talks.

In a CBS interview the BBC cites, Trump would not say whether he could declare victory without removing or destroying the enriched uranium. He played the stockpile down. The BBC quotes him saying the material is buried so deep that it would be very hard for anybody to reach, that it is "pretty safe," and that "we'll make a determination." The BBC says those remarks followed a Wall Street Journal report that the United States was considering an operation to extract the material. The White House said Trump had not made a final decision.

The BBC says senior US officials put Iran's stock of uranium enriched to 60 percent at about 440 kilograms at the start of the war. It says that level can be raised fairly quickly to about 90 percent, the level used in a weapon. It also cites roughly 1,000 kilograms enriched to 20 percent, and about 8,500 kilograms at the much lower level used in medical research. Most of the material closest to bomb fuel is believed to be at Isfahan, a city in central Iran and one of three underground nuclear sites hit in US-Israeli strikes the year before. The BBC says it is unclear how much sits elsewhere, including at Fordo and Natanz, the other two sites struck in the operation the article calls Midnight Hammer.

Jason Campbell, a former senior US defense official in the Obama and Trump administrations, told the BBC the ideal case is knowing exactly where the material is. If it has been split across several sites, he said, the job is a different order of difficulty. Rafael Grossi, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN body that inspects nuclear sites, said the month before that most of the highly enriched uranium is at Isfahan, with some at Natanz. The BBC says he also said inspectors have not been back since they were evacuated after the 2025 air campaign, so finer detail is missing. The BBC says satellite images from February showed tunnel entrances at Isfahan sealed with earth.

The BBC says air strikes had been enough to damage Iran's navy, missiles, and industry. Securing the uranium, experts told the BBC, is different. It could not be done without ground forces. The article says the United States could use parts of the 82nd Airborne Division, which had been sent to the Middle East, to secure the areas around Isfahan and Natanz. The 82nd is the Army's parachute infantry, trained to jump in and hold a place. Special operations troops trained to handle nuclear material would then go in for the uranium, which the BBC says is a gas stored in large metal containers.

The BBC says satellite images show the entrances at Isfahan and Natanz badly damaged, so troops would likely need heavy machines to dig through rubble, in tunnels deep underground, while Iran could counterattack. Campbell told the BBC that forces would first have to dig the site open and find the uranium, likely under near constant threat. Isfahan is about 300 miles inland and is Iran's third-largest city, the BBC says. Alex Plitsas, a former defense official the BBC quotes, called the mission high risk even if Iranian defenses had been worn down. He said medical evacuation would be hard at that distance, and that troops would be exposed to anti-aircraft fire on the way in and out and to attack while they were at the site.

The BBC says the mission would likely start by seizing an airfield or a landing zone, then getting the uranium out. The 82nd, which trains to seize airfields, could help set up that base. Officials had also talked, the BBC says, about diluting the uranium on site instead of flying it out. Diluting means mixing it down so it is less useful for a bomb. Jonathan Ruhe, whom the BBC describes as an expert on Iran's nuclear program at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, a conservative Washington think tank, said diluting it in place would be large, slow, and complex. Taking it out would be faster, he said, and the United States could dilute it at home. Either way, he said, the risk is deep.

"And there are a million things that could go wrong."

Jonathan Ruhe, quoted by the BBC on 31 March 2026.

Ruhe also told the BBC the force would have to carry out about half a ton of what he called effectively weapons-grade uranium.

What other reporting and posts add

Israel's prime minister said it plainly. In a 60 Minutes interview six weeks after this article, CBS's Major Garrett asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu how the uranium would be removed. Netanyahu: "You go in, and you take it out." Asked whether that meant Israeli or US special forces, he said: "Well, I'm not gonna talk about military means, but the pres-- what President Trump has said to me, 'I want to go in there.' and I think it can be done physically." CBS News transcript, 10 May 2026; Middle East Eye headlined it "Netanyahu hints at US troop deployment against Iran in CBS interview" (Middle East Eye, 11 May 2026). (capture: twitter/t13__v145.md)

The plan existed before this article. Five days earlier, Axios reported, as The Independent retold it, that "Plans for ground operations to secure enriched uranium within Iran's nuclear facilities have also been prepared by the U.S. military, along with an alternative proposal to carry out a large-scale air strike on the facilities that would not require boots on the ground." White House officials called the options "hypothetical." The Independent, 26 March 2026. (capture: twitter/t56__v668.md)

Some American voices pushed for it. The same weekend, conservative radio and Fox host Mark Levin was quoted on an X news summary calling for US ground troops: "We've got to get the uranium." The same summary carried a Politico line that "Republican insiders believe if we put boots on the ground in Iran the GOP will lose 60-70 seats in the House." Both are fragments on an X trend page, not the full original items. X trend, 29 March 2026. (captures: twitter/t50__v599.md, twitter/t49__v584.md)

What happened next: in June, CNN reported that the US military rushed to prepare exactly this mission and Trump paused it; see US military rushed to prepare ground mission to capture Iran's uranium.

What it shows

The BBC's experts spell out what taking the uranium really means: seizing an airfield, digging through rubble, and staying on Iranian ground for days, with the 82nd Airborne already in the region. That is the mission Prime Minister Netanyahu described as "You go in, and you take it out," and it is a mission Israel's own press said Israeli infantry would not join. In June, CNN reported the ground mission had been prepared and then paused; in July, the New York Post reported it would take thousands of ground troops. See Kharg Island and the Uranium Raid.

Check it yourself

'A million things could go wrong' - why seizing Iran's uranium would be so risky for the US, BBC, Daniel Bush and Bernd Debusmann Jr, 31 March 2026. No second source was opened for this page.

Status: Donald Trump is alive.

Why this matters to a newcomer: the stated reason for the US-Israeli war on Iran, which began on 28 February 2026, is to stop Iran from building a nuclear bomb. Bombs from the air had hit Iran's nuclear sites, but the most dangerous material, uranium already enriched close to bomb grade, is believed to be buried in tunnels. The only sure way to take it is for soldiers to go in and get it. That is why "seizing the uranium" keeps coming up as the most likely reason Americans would be sent onto Iranian ground.

Research captures: twitter/t13__v145.md, twitter/t56__v668.md, twitter/t50__v599.md, twitter/t49__v584.md

Last Updated: 2026-09-26