Physicist lawmaker warns US lacks clear plan for Iran’s enriched uranium

Lawmakers raise alarm over interceptor shortages as U.S. forces reportedly used quarter of global THAAD inventory defending against Iran's missile attacks. War With Iran Physicist lawmaker warns US lacks clear plan for Iran’s enriched uranium Rep. Bill Foster says administration presented no plan to secure Iran's enriched uranium stockpile during classified briefing By Morgan Phillips Fox News Published March 4, 2026 3:57pm EST Facebook Twitter Threads Flipboard Comments Print Email Add Fox News on Google close Video US, Israel will have 'complete control of Iranian skies,' Hegseth says Secretary of War Pete Hegseth says U.S. and Israeli forces will fly over Tehran day and night targeting Iran’s missile network. NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! A House Democrat and physicist by background is sounding the alarm over what he views as a lack of a plan to deal with Iran’s nuclear sites during the U.S. offensive campaign. Coming out of a classified briefing with top administration officials, Rep. Bill Foster, D-Ill., said Tuesday lawmakers were not presented with a clear plan to secure or neutralize Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium."We have heard that they never had a plan for that nuclear stockpile of enriched uranium — to destroy that, to seize it or to put it under international inspection," he The U.S. intervention was publicly justified by the Trump administration as a necessary step to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. U.S. forces have struck more than 1,700 targets across Iran, including ballistic missile launch sites, air defenses, naval assets and command centers. Core nuclear facilities, however, have not been among the primary targets."Until that happens, Iran will be very, very close to making — as many observers have pointed out in a nonclassified situation — Iran can use that material to make a handful of Hiroshima-style nuclear devices," Foster told Fox News Digital. "Not the sort you can put on a missile, but the sort you can deliver by a number of other ways and are very hard to stop." Coming out of a classified briefing with top administration officials, Rep. Bill Foster, D-Ill., said lawmakers were not presented with a clear plan to secure or neutralize Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium. (Scott Applewhite/pool via Reuters) Foster was referring to Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium — material that, if weaponized, could be used to build a nuclear explosive device.Experts note that building a compact warhead that fits on a ballistic missile is technically complex and requires advanced engineering. But a simpler, larger nuclear device — similar in basic concept to the bomb the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in — would not need to be miniaturized to fit on a missile. Such a device could not be delivered by long-range rocket but could theoretically be transported by other means. Foster argued that containing Iran’s nuclear materials, most of which are buried deep underground, would likely require U.S. forces to enter Iran. Recent satellite imagery shows damage to support buildings and access points at Iran’s Natanz enrichment site, though the deepest underground infrastructure at key nuclear facilities has not been confirmed as a primary target in the current campaign.U.S. and international officials previously have acknowledged that while strikes can damage enrichment infrastructure, stockpiled enriched uranium stored underground may remain intact and potentially retrievable unless physically secured or removed."You have to go in there with boots on the ground and grab a bunch of equipment," Foster said. "You have to go underground into those facilities, and lose a lot of soldiers’ lives doing that." "They’re unwilling to do that, or they’ve decided not to, or they’ve decided it’s impossible — in any case, they did not present to us any plan that would actually get the material under control."Without securing the nuclear material, he argued, military operations may push Iran closer to a nuclear weapon than diplomatic negotiations would have."The only positive thing about the Ayatollah is that he had a fatwa against building nuclear weapons. Who knows what the next generation of ayatollahs are going to feel? They’re going to be under a lot of pressure from the IRGC, which was not so much against having a nuclear weapon." President Donald Trump confirmed the launch of U.S. strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, 2026. (Contributor/Getty Images) Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the joint U.S.-Israeli operations, had previously issued a fatwa — a religious edict — opposing the pursuit of nuclear weapons. Analysts have long debated how binding or durable that ruling was. At a Wednesday White House briefing, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration believes Iran "wanted to build nuclear weapons to use against Americans and our allies," framing the strikes as necessary to prevent Tehran from advancing its nuclear ambitions.Missile suppression strategy faces ‘math problem’Senior administration officials have emphasized that the current phase of the campaign is aimed at dismantling Iran’s ability to project