Special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met with a team of technical experts at a national laboratory in Tennessee on Thursday, a US official said, as the country works to advance nuclear negotiations with Iran.
The visit to Oak Ridge National Laboratory, initially reported by Axios, comes amid those with Tehran, which has as one of its main objectives limiting Iran’s nuclear program.
Scott Roecker, vice president of the Nuclear Materials Security Program at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, explained that the laboratory has a history of removing highly enriched uranium in several parts of the world.
According to Roecker, the laboratory has both the necessary experience and resources — including a Mobile Uranium Facility, to safely handle, convert and transport highly enriched uranium. However, he noted that no one in the United States has experience recovering buried uranium stockpiles.
The US strikes against in June 2025, an operation the Pentagon called Operation Midnight Hammer, were assessed by US intelligence as having buried much of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium at the Isfahan nuclear complex, but without destroying it.
The visit does not mean that a deal with Iran is imminent. However, Roecker called the visit “an encouraging sign because at some point in these negotiations I believe we needed to engage the experts from the United States government.”
The United States Secretary of State, , said earlier this week that negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program would be “highly technical” and could take months.
“The second phase is that they need to commit to very specific negotiations about highly enriched uranium, including the fate of this material, which is still buried deep somewhere inside a mountain,” Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday. “They must agree to negotiate severe, long-term limitations and/or closure of uranium enrichment activities in their country.”
“Obviously, these are highly technical issues, so I don’t believe it’s possible to resolve them in five days,” Rubio said. “This would require a team of experts to meet over a period of 30, 60 or 90 days to work out the details, but they must commit to demonstrating a willingness to do so.”
The top US diplomat added that this phase of negotiations would depend on Iran reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
