Iran Hands Out Iodine Tablets and Issues Nuclear Survival Guidance as Trump Threatens Pickaxe Mountain

Since the U.S. and Israel launched their offensive against Iran on Feb. 28, the war has settled into months of relative quiet. As of today, Nov. 6, Iran is preparing its population for a possible radiological emergency, even as Trump keeps Pickaxe Mountain in his sights.

Iodine tablets and a shelter video

An unnamed Iranian Health Ministry official told The Times of London that Iran is handing out iodine tablets near nuclear facilities. "Yes, we are distributing iodine," the official said. "During every war, we have tried to distribute it within a two-to-three-kilometre radius of nuclear facilities."

The same official added: "Trump can no longer be trusted. He may go through with this." The report did not establish when the latest distribution began or which facilities are covered.

A separate, named account comes from Bushehr, home to Iran's only operational nuclear power plant. The deputy head of Bushehr University of Medical Sciences for health affairs said 180,000 iodine tablets have been distributed under a decision by crisis management authorities, according to the Young Journalists Club news agency. He said the program began as an emergency plan before the June 2025 war.

It started around the plant and has since expanded to the whole city. Tablets remain available at health centers. Dosing runs from one-eighth of a tablet for infants under one month to a full tablet for anyone over 12, taken from 24 hours before an incident to four hours after.

The tablets saturate the thyroid with stable iodine so it absorbs less radioactive iodine. They are a narrow precaution, not a shield against a blast.

What the guidance tells Iranians to do

The Times examined a video circulating in Iran that asks viewers to imagine a nuclear explosion at Pickaxe Mountain. It lists distances to nearby cities: 17 miles to Natanz, 25 to Kashan, 117 to Isfahan and 223 to Tehran. Its instructions are three: "Get inside, stay inside and listen for updates."

The video also warns that a strike on an underground facility could throw radioactive earth and rock into the air. Winds could carry contaminated dust for hundreds of miles. It says people closest to the site may have only 10 to 15 minutes before fallout arrives, and those farther away several hours.

Iranian officials are also speaking on the record. Ebrahim Adelzadeh, deputy director of education and research at the Isfahan Red Crescent Society, told state broadcaster IRNA that "a basement or a room in the central part of a building, away from windows, can be a suitable shelter." He said people far from a blast site should heed official warnings.

Egyptian and Saudi outlets, including Veto and Saudi News 50, reported that the guidance tells residents to close windows and shut off air-conditioning and ventilation. They also reported that it tells residents to prepare to stay sheltered for 24 hours. Those details come from foreign outlets relaying the Iranian material, not from an Iranian official.

What Trump has said

Trump told Fox News on Monday that the U.S. "might have to go after" Pickaxe Mountain. He said it would not be "a big deal" and could be finished "in an hour." In Iowa on Sunday he said, "At some point we're going to have to give them the hammer." On Nov. 1 he said Washington could hit Iran's remaining suspected nuclear sites within 10 minutes.

He has also drawn a line on nuclear weapons. On Oct. 16 he ruled out using them against Iran while raising further conventional strikes.

That has not stopped speculation. Tucker Carlson claimed Sunday, without evidence, that the U.S. is weighing a nuclear strike on the site together with Israel. A White House spokesperson told Newsweek that Carlson "has no insight into military planning or the Commander-in-Chief's thinking." No official source in the reporting says a nuclear strike is under consideration.

The target problem

The U.S. did not hit Pickaxe Mountain during the June 2025 war or the months of strikes that began in late February 2026. That June, B-2-class heavy bombers were not the issue. B-1 bombers dropped 14 GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators on Fordow and Natanz.

Some analysts say the core of Pickaxe Mountain sits as deep as 100 meters, with others putting it at 80 to 100 meters. They argue that even the GBU-57 would struggle against that. Satellite imagery shows a widening security zone, interior roads and four protected tunnel entrances.

Iran's position is that no nuclear activity is under way at the site. Iranian officials say it simply replaces the Natanz centrifuge plant destroyed in an explosion in September 2020. The International Atomic Energy Agency says it has been barred from the site and that Tehran announced nuclear-related work there as far back as 2020. Satellite images cannot confirm whether enriched uranium is stored inside.

Washington politics

The midterms are over, and Democrats did well in this week's elections. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has said Democrats may use their control over funding to push for an end to the Iran war. Whether that changes Trump's calculus is untested.

The facts on the ground are narrow. Iran is distributing iodine and circulating shelter instructions. Trump has threatened a site that U.S. bombs have not reached before. What comes next depends on whether Tehran will let IAEA inspectors in before Washington acts, and no one in the reporting says that offer is on the table.