The Iran Breakdown with Mark Dubowitz

Pickaxe Mountain: Iran’s “Unbustable” Nuclear Bunker? (feat. Andrea Stricker)

July 21, 2026·40 min
Episode Description from the Publisher

Iran isn’t dismantling its nuclear program—it’s burying it deeper underground.At the center of growing U.S. concern is Pickaxe Mountain, a massive underground complex that signals the regime has no intention of abandoning its nuclear ambitions. Buried deep beneath solid rock and heavily fortified, the facility may be the most challenging nuclear target the United States has ever confronted, raising difficult questions about whether it can be destroyed by conventional means.Andrea Stricker, deputy director and research fellow in FDD’s Nonproliferation and Biodefense Program, joins Mark Dubowitz on The Iran Breakdown to explain why Pickaxe Mountain matters, what makes it so difficult to neutralize, what military and non-military options remain, and which other parts of Iran’s nuclear program deserve urgent attention.

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