Iran has issued public nuclear-attack survival guidance through state media and Revolutionary Guards-linked channels, citing ongoing US threats against a deeply buried facility near Natanz known as Pickaxe Mountain. Distributed during the country's annual Passive Defence Week in late October 2026, the explicit messaging includes an eight-minute instructional video advising citizens to take shelter in basements, seal windows, and prepare for potential radioactive fallout.
According to intelligence reports and regional coverage from outlets like JFeed, the Pickaxe Mountain complex is a heavily fortified network of tunnels dug up to 145 meters deep into solid granite, making it highly resilient against standard conventional bunker-busters. Western assessments indicate Iran may have moved advanced centrifuges and enriched uranium to the location to protect them from potential air strikes.
The underground facility at Pickaxe Mountain, also known as Kuh-e Kolang Gaz La, features several distinct military and structural specifications that distinguish it from Iran’s other nuclear installations. Regarding geological protection, the facility is excavated deep into the hard granite of the Karkas Mountains, with main operational halls estimated to sit between 80 to 145 metres below the mountain ridge, providing massive natural shock absorption against aerial bombardments.
This gives it notable bunker-buster resilience, placing the inner core beyond the rated single-strike capability of the United States’ most powerful conventional penetrator, the 30,000-pound GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, which penetrates up to 60 metres of earth. Terrain data from the Institute for Science and International Security indicates a multi-level architecture featuring two pairs of tunnel entrances, with the eastern portals situated roughly 50 metres lower than the western ones to suggest a steep sloping layout designed to isolate damage.
The tunnel geometry inside uses a zigzag network to ensure that if a conventional weapon or blast wave breaches an entrance corridor, the physical layout deflects the overpressure and prevents a localized collapse from compromising adjacent enrichment pockets or assembly halls. Finally, satellite imagery reveals a highly reinforced infrastructure with extensive surface engineering, including massive dirt and concrete earth berms built around the entrances, reinforced security walls, and multiple heavily protected vertical ventilation shafts to sustain underground operations.
While President Donald Trump has publicly stated he would not use nuclear weapons to target the facility, he has repeatedly warned that the United States is actively tracking the site and could strike it soon with conventional forces. Media commentators, including Tucker Carlson, have recently claimed that a nuclear strike is under active consideration due to the depth of the bunkers, though the White House has dismissed these assertions as unverified speculation from individuals lacking insight into actual military planning. Judging by the preparation of the public for a potential strike, Iran does not seem to take any chance - and regret later.
Military experts note that any real US operations are much more likely to center on heavy conventional penetrators or munitions designed to collapse the facility's entrances. Analysts view Iran's sudden focus on nuclear civil defense as both a practical readiness measure and a psychological strategy to signal the risks of regional escalation to Washington.
On his campaign trail, meanwhile, President Trump kept repeating that he wanted to make a 'deal' provided that Iran does not produce a nuclear weapon. He said that the United States is not at war with Iran.
On Monday, however, the US Air Force destroyed a newly-built Iranian air defence system, most probably in Kharg Island. President Trump said that the United States monitored the process of building the facility and destroyed it when it was complete. Iran has not commented on the attack.
