Tel Aviv: Iran is threatening the US and Israel to attack US forces in the region and Israeli targets if President Trump gives the order to start an operation aimed at eliminating the regime in Tehran. One of these threats mentioned is a “Dirty Bomb”.
Iran is widely believed to have the resources, knowledge, and dual-use infrastructure necessary to build a radiological or “dirty bomb,” although there is no public, solid evidence that it has done so as of January 2026.
A dirty bomb employs conventional explosives to distribute radioactive material, with the goal of causing contamination and terror rather than generating a nuclear yield. States with considerable nuclear fuel-cycle activity and medical/industrial isotopes already have a lot of what they need in terms of source material and know-how.
Iran operates enrichment facilities in Fordow and Natanz and conversion plants, all of which handle uranium compounds that could be used as radiological material if dispersed by explosives. All these sites have been damaged by US bombs in June 2025.
According to a 2025 investigation, many hundred kilograms of near-weapons-grade uranium remain unaccounted for following the June 2025 strikes.
Some analysts argue that dispersal from such strikes or from damaged storage could be used to make a dirty bomb. Analysts treat an Iranian dirty bomb as a credible option within Iran’s escalation toolbox, not as a known, already-fielded weapon system.
-The writer is an Israel-based freelance journalist. The views expressed are of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of Raksha Anirveda
