Iran to research fusion reactor
Source: Agencies |
July 25, 2010, Sunday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
IRAN'S nuclear agency is to research the building of an experimental nuclear fusion reactor, something that has yet to be achieved by any nation.
Iran is not known to have carried out anything but basic fusion research, but has a nuclear fission program the US and its allies believe is a front to build weapons -- a charge Tehran denies.
Nuclear fusion, the process powering the sun and stars, has so far only been mastered as a weapon, producing the thermonuclear explosions of hydrogen bombs. It has never been harnessed for power generation.
Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi, who also heads Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, said his agency has an initial budget of US$8 million to conduct "serious" research into nuclear fusion.
Asghar Sediqzadeh, head of the new fusion research center, said Iran will take two years to complete research and then another decade to design and build a reactor.
"We have already hired 50 experts for this purpose," he told state TV.
The United States, Europe, China, India, Russia, Japan and South Korea signed an accord in 2006 to build a US$12.8 billion experimental fusion reactor at Cadarache, France, aimed at revolutionizing global energy use.
The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER, members have said no single country can afford the investment needed to move the science forward.
Iran is not known to have carried out anything but basic fusion research, but has a nuclear fission program the US and its allies believe is a front to build weapons -- a charge Tehran denies.
Nuclear fusion, the process powering the sun and stars, has so far only been mastered as a weapon, producing the thermonuclear explosions of hydrogen bombs. It has never been harnessed for power generation.
Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi, who also heads Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, said his agency has an initial budget of US$8 million to conduct "serious" research into nuclear fusion.
Asghar Sediqzadeh, head of the new fusion research center, said Iran will take two years to complete research and then another decade to design and build a reactor.
"We have already hired 50 experts for this purpose," he told state TV.
The United States, Europe, China, India, Russia, Japan and South Korea signed an accord in 2006 to build a US$12.8 billion experimental fusion reactor at Cadarache, France, aimed at revolutionizing global energy use.
The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER, members have said no single country can afford the investment needed to move the science forward.
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