Pandora Report 3.6.2026
This issue highlights evolving chemical and biological weapons risks, update on H5N1 in the US and Cambodia, shifting leadership in U.S. public health institutions, and the growing intersection of biotechnology, AI, and biosecurity governance.
www.pandorareport.org
Strikes on Iranian Nuclear Sites Signal Resolve To End Tehran’s Nuclear Weapons Program
www.fdd.org/analysis/202...
So nothing can get in or out but the facility may also be too deep for destruction, even by MOPs (US had to use 12 against Fordow). Without return of IAEA inspectors, Iran will retain unsafeguarded latent nuclear capability.
Key takeaway is that IAEA believes Iran's HEU is stored in a tunnel complex at Isfahan, which Iran declared as an enrichment facility but IAEA has never inspected, that is twice as deep as the Fordow enrichment site and the entrances have all been buried by Iran.
The entrances to the underground facility at Isfahan are 600 feet/180 meters below the mountain peak (per ISIS report) which is approximately twice as deep as Fordow, which was struck with 12 GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrators in June 2025.
As of March 3, the site had not been struck by the US or Israel
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/03/w...
In early February, Iran completely buried the three entrances to the tunnel complex/IFEP indicating this was a high value site they sought to protect from airstrikes.
isis-online.org/isis-reports...
Iran's storage of its 20% and 60% HEU at this site, coupled with potential enrichment capability at this site, is concerning and would have been the highest priority site for IAEA to inspect under the (never implemented) Cairo Agreement.
Since Iran claims the IFEP was attacked in June 2025 and the tunnel complex at Isfahan is known to have been attacked at that time, it is reasonable to infer Iran had built, was building, or planned to build an enrichment facility inside the tunnel complex.
Details on this tunnel complex, which was built in 2005 and upgraded in 2020-2021 can be found here: isis-online.org/isis-reports...
IAEA believes that the 184 kg of 20% HEU and 441 kg of 60% HEU is stored at "the tunnel complex at Isfahan."
IAEA cannot provide update on status of Iran's declared enrichment facilities since it has not had access to them since June 2025.
IAEA assess that 7 declared facilities were subject to military attack plus Iran has claimed the Isfahan Fuel Enrichment Plant (IFEP) it declared on June 12 was also attacked. IAEA has never visited the IFEP.
Iran has not provided access to any of the fuel cycle facilities attacked in June 2025 despite the September 2025 Cairo agreement on ‘Practical Steps on Safeguards Implementation in Iran pursuant to the NPT Safeguards Agreement following the armed attacks on its safeguarded nuclear facilities’
Latest IAEA report on status of Iran's nuclear program. Highlights to follow
www.iaea.org/sites/defaul...
ODNI MIA on HEU
Iran Nuclear Weapons Capability and Terrorism Monitoring Act in the FY23 NDAA directs the DNI to provide Congress and the public with unclassified reports on the status of Iran's nuclear program every 6 months. Last update provided in March 2025.
www.congress.gov/bill/117th-c...
Per the FY23 NDAA, ODNI is required to submit unclassified reports to Congress and public every 6 months on the status of the Iranian nuclear program. So Gabbard should have released 2 such reports since the March threat assessment. Where are they?
www.congress.gov/bill/117th-c...
Takeshi Ebisawa Sentenced To 20 Years In Prison For Conspiring To Traffic Nuclear Materials, Narcotics, And Firearms
www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr...
This is playing with fire...
This is a problem:
"AI-enabled synthesis and retrosynthesis capabilities are provided by a heterogeneous set of vendors and some are offered with limited or no user verification."
OPCW Science Advisory Board has issued its report on #AI, chemistry, and chemical weapons.
www.opcw.org/sites/defaul...
Good plan, there’s no way that the US would ever betray Kurds who fought on their behalf, or that Turkey would be upset by and seek to frustrate any US-backed Kurdish forces, or that an invasion from Iraq would trigger Iranian nationalist opposition. None of those things have ever happened.
Video: U.S. official tells Fox News that thousands of Iraqi Kurds launched a ground offensive in Iran.
Start Planning Now to Secure CBRN Materials in Iran
@stimsoncenter.bsky.social @cupitt.bsky.social
www.stimson.org/2026/start-p...
Stockpiles, Countermeasures, and Deterrence: A Blueprint to Fix America’s Biodefense Gap
www.realcleardefense.com/articles/202...
As the laid off Middle East News Editor, I concur. Management eliminated the positions of every single staff correspondent and bureau chief in the Middle East.
Everyone I have spoken to believes Trump is in way over his head on this, Hegseth and his team are making matters worse not better, and that this is more a war of impulse and ignorance than it is a war of choice. We've never been in such a situation and so adrift and leaderless.
Macron has to undo 60 years of French nuclear doctrine based on the premise that extended deterrence is an illusion and convince allies that French nuclear threats on their behalf are credible. Good luck.
