IDF warns Iranians to evacuate area of Arak heavy water reactor

The IDF warns residents of the cities of Arak and Khondab in central Iran to evacuate for their safety. A heavy-water reactor is on the outskirts of Khondab.

The IDF says in a Farsi-language statement that the IDF is operating in the area against Iranian military infrastructure.

???? هشدار فوری به کارکنان و نیز کلیه افرادی که در ناحیه قرمز رنگ نقشه در محدود شهرهای اراک و خنداب قرار دارند

⭕️ ارتش اسرائیل همچنان که در روزهای اخیر در سراسر ایران برای حمله به زیرساخت‌های نظامی رژیم ایران اقدام کرده است، در این ناحیه فعالیت می‌کند.

⭕️ شهروندان گرامی بمنظور… pic.twitter.com/r75zX5HPbc

— ارتش دفاعی اسرائیل | IDF Farsi (@IDFFarsi) June 19, 2025

Heavy water helps cool nuclear reactors, but it produces plutonium as a byproduct that can potentially be used in nuclear weapons. That would provide Iran another path to the bomb beyond enriched uranium, should it choose to pursue the weapon.

Iran had agreed under its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers to redesign the facility to relieve proliferation concerns.

In 2019, Iran started up the heavy water reactor’s secondary circuit, which at the time did not violate the 2015 nuclear deal.

The UK at the time was helping Iran redesign the Arak reactor to limit the amount of plutonium it produces, stepping in for the US, which had withdrawn from the project after then-president Donald Trump’s decision in 2018 to unilaterally withdraw the US from the nuclear deal.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, has been urging Israel not to strike Iranian nuclear sites. IAEA inspectors reportedly last visited Arak on May 14.

Due to restrictions Iran imposed on inspectors, the IAEA has said it lost “continuity of knowledge” about Iran’s heavy water production — meaning it could not absolutely verify Tehran’s production and stockpile.