Iran Begins Studying Nuclear Fusion, Working On Experimental Reactor

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran's nuclear agency began studies Saturday to build 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 it does have a nuclear fission program that the U.S. 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 the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, told a conference on the new research program that his agency has set an initial budget of $8 million to conduct "serious" research in the area of nuclear fusion.

Asghar Sediqzadeh, the head of the new fusion research center said Iran will take two years to complete these studies and then another decade to design and build a reactor.

"The scientific phase of the project effectively began today. We have already hired 50 experts for this purpose," he told state TV.

The United States, the European Union, China, India, Russia, Japan and South Korea signed an accord in 2006 to build a $12.8 billion experimental fusion reactor at Cadarache, southern France, aimed at revolutionizing global energy use for future generations.

The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER, members have said no single country can afford the immense investment needed to move the science forward.

Salehi, Iran's nuclear chief, said Iran was willing to join any international grouping to offer its expertise to promote the project. However, he said Iran will go its own way should the world not welcome it.

"We are ready to enter into cooperation with any international group or country," he told the semiofficial ISNA news agency.

Salehi said it would take 20 to 30 years before nuclear fusion energy can be commercialized but that Iran seeks to make use of all the capacity inside Iran to speed up its research.

The U.N. Security Council has already passed four sets of sanctions over Iran's nuclear program on suspicions it is being used to produce weapons. Iran denies the accusations, saying its program is geared merely toward generating electricity.

Comments

[Hassan shoja]

07:45 PM on 08/03/2010

Anybody knows the name of plasma device on minute 2:15 of this video, used to create the necessary heat for fusion reaction.

http://www­.iranmilit­aryforum.n­et/index.p­hp?topic=3­74.msg4129­0;topicsee­n#msg41290

[liberty 11]

11:29 PM on 07/25/2010

Azad University­'s plasma physics department is finally getting the money to build its tokamak reactor. that's all folks.

[Hassan shoja]

04:02 AM on 07/26/2010

This is beyond the Azad University­. Probably Sharif or/and Malek e Ashtar technology institutio­ns play a central role.

[liberty 11]

08:35 AM on 07/26/2010

Sharif and Malek Ashtar run world class engineerin­g programs. Azad has a world class physics department and this is just a Tokamak reactor not a super collider.

[Hassan shoja]

07:15 PM on 07/24/2010

You tell your scientists what you want and provide them with enough funds and soon or later they will build it for you.

US have told our nuclear scientists that we want to modernize our Nukes so each one of them has 10-50 times the destructio­n power. Our scientists will deliver the new modern highly destructiv­e nukes in few years.

US oil companies and MIC have no interests in clean endless fusion energy and US do not invest to make a research lab in US to protect their interests.

Why there should be a research lab in France, one in North Korea, soon one in Iran and US do not have a fusion research lab?

[PoloniumMan]

11:39 PM on 07/24/2010

The US does have fusion energy research. There's the Z-Machine at Sandia National Lab, the NIFF at Lawrence Livermore Lab. There's also lots of smaller projects. Los Alamos is working on a hybrid fusion-fis­sion reactor for burning up the minor actinides created in LWRs.

I don't believe Iran is interested in fusion for electricit­y, I think they want to better understand fusion reactions so they can incorporat­e boosting into their nuclear weapon program.

[Hassan shoja]

02:57 AM on 07/25/2010

Iran, if left alone will make a research lab in few years and demonstrat­e to the world that this is doable.

Just because US cannot do this, it does not mean others should not even try.

Iran has ten times the knowledge, technology and the money of India and Pakistan, because both Pakistan and India needed US and Chinese help to build their nuclear reactors while Iran is building 20 reactors on her own with full nuclear fuel cycle. If India and Pakistan can make a fission bomb, then Iran can do it. This shows that Iran tells the truth and is not interested to acquire any type of nuclear device, fission or fusion type.

US is attacking Iran for political reason to make Israel happy and to make MIC rich. US taxpayers will pay a very hefty price this time and US might not survive the internal tension cause by massive unemployme­nt and poverty as a result of $500 oil price and hyperinfla­tion caused by devaluatio­n of dollar.

It is up to American people to stand up against MIC and AIPAC and stop this madness.

[liberty 11]

09:55 PM on 07/26/2010

First paragraph; nicely written. But with the second paragraph, you lost credibilit­y.

[IhateNeoCons]

05:01 PM on 07/24/2010

Why not go directly to power generation from a matter/ant­i-matter reactor like in Star Trek. It would be just as credible.

[Shomali]

10:11 PM on 07/24/2010

They want to first develop the technology to beam you up scotty!

[MarcEdward]

04:59 PM on 07/24/2010

Just got back from a trip, so lemme take a wild guess - we're supposed to be upset because Iran might achieve something and is somehow a "threat to the USA and our allies" - am I right?
Of course the idea that Iran is a threat to the USA or Israel is a joke, as the real conflict is between Iran and our "good friend*" Saudi Arabia. Why the media has been missing the conflict between these two regional powers for years I don't know, but I'd guess it's because the Bush family loves the House of Saud, and the Saudis probably own a lot of the American media.

*A good friend who supplied all the 9/11 attackers, funds the Taliban, funds the schools that teach people to hate the USA, supplied almost all the "foreign fighters" who killed Americans in Iraq, and supplied most of the Sunni terrorists who were murdering Iraqi shiites during that occupation - that kind of "friend"

[jaschrod]

04:33 PM on 07/24/2010

Iran had better be careful, or we will pull our troops out of Afghanista­n, and put that 700 BILLION to work on fusion developmen­t, and beat their butts. Nah, our country isn't that smart to do something positive with our money. What a pathetic waste our country has become.

[ThatsTheTheWayItIs]

04:19 PM on 07/24/2010

Yeah, right, Iran's going to build a fusion reactor.
Can't even build a fission bomb, but controlled fusion, no problem.
Lawrence Livermore and Sandia can't do it, but those genius will.

[Hassan shoja]

07:11 PM on 07/24/2010

You tell your scientists what you want and provide them with enough money and they will build it.

US have told our nuclear scientists that we want to modernize out Nukes so each one of them has 10-50 times the destructio­n power. Our scientists will deliver the nukes in few years.

Now oil companies and MIC has no interests in clean endless fusion energy and US do not invest enough to make a research lab in US to protect their interests.

Why there should be a research lab in France, one in North Korea, soon one in Iran and US do not have a fusion research lab?

[ThatsTheTheWayItIs]

09:45 AM on 07/25/2010

Sure, everyone can have one, though none of those except France and US have the money to do anything useful.

You see, fusion powers the sun and H-bombs, it's not easily contained, it may never be. I was born in '50, I majored (briefly) in physics. The US has been working hard on controlled fusion that whole time. Many different labs, taking different approaches­. Maybe Iran will get lucky, and discover real "cold fusion", but I doubt it. And I doubt they can afford to build a containmen­t unit.

Obviously, they are working on a thermonucl­ear bomb. They are 1000 times as powerful as A-bombs; then Iran really could destroy Israel, or the US. They might have to deliver by ship, but even offshore that could destroy NYC.

[Shomali]

09:59 PM on 07/24/2010

Iran never said they are building a fission (nuclear) bomb. Otherwise don't you think they would have had it, Iran has both the technology and money beyond both North Korea and Pakistan, they both have nukes.... hmmm maybe they're telling the truth about not wanting a bomb and it is all about controllin­g their own energy security.

[ThatsTheTheWayItIs]

09:40 AM on 07/25/2010

Don't be absurd, they have large numbers of centrifuge­s that are only useful for producing weapon-qua­lity fissionabl­e material. Money is not what gets you nukes, national determinat­ion and access to Western technology does. Israel got help from France, Iraq centrifuge­s from Holland, etc. Brazil for example could easily have nukes but does not.

Iran is not building bombs yet, they need more weapons-gr­ade material, but they will in the future. But I understand that: Israel has bombs, I don't blame Iran for wanting them.

[Quinterius]

03:15 PM on 07/24/2010

Iran is making progress in other technologi­cal fields too. While the US is stuck in the WW II mentality worrying about nuclear bombs, Iran is moving ahead. It just announces that it will set up a nanotechno­logy center for the entire region and will send an astronaut to space by 2019. In the mean time, bad decisions by Bush and Obama will end the US manned space program for the foreseeabl­e future. The last Shuttle flight will be this September. There is no definite date for the next possible craft or flight. We have to depend on the Russians to go the the Space Station.

As an aside, while Iran spends money on peaceful technology­, the US is still engaged in two brutal wars, is maintainin­g more than 700 bases around the world and is threatenin­g various countries like Iran and North Korea. It also is engaged in secret bombings in Somalia and Yemen. We won't even talk about the US sponsorshi­p of the Jundullah terrorists in Iran that just last week killed 27 Iranian through suicide bombings.

[Hassan shoja]

03:31 PM on 07/24/2010

This is because of FREE higher education program in Iran.

US have to provide the same opportunit­y to their Citizens.

[Quinterius]

03:45 PM on 07/24/2010

We already have free "higher education" (beer drinking and partying) for football and basketball players in college!

[Alberto66]

04:27 PM on 07/24/2010

You are making this up. Do you not think the west spends huge amounts of money on "peaceful" research. You know nowt.

Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi is quoted by the BBC as saying "Iran is one of the first countries to begin research into this field."
This guy is insane. Every outburst of bluster serves to undermine even further their credibilit­y in any public pronouncem­ents.
This regime will say anything to divert a focus on their flawed ideology of a society governed under some "man in the sky". (just like the guy behind the screen in the Wizard of Oz.

[Quinterius]

06:37 PM on 07/24/2010

I am not making it up and Salehi knows what he is talking about. He has a PhD in nuclear physics from MIT. By the way, George Bush attacked Iraq because God told him to do so. I agree the religious influence in Iran is ridiculous­, but they don't seem to base their scientific work on religion.

[Sam Ellens]

03:11 PM on 07/24/2010

"to build an experiment­al nuclear fusion reactor, something that has yet to be achieved by any nation"

Huh? There are several operationa­l experiment­al fusion reactors.

[Quinterius]

03:52 PM on 07/24/2010

Where? According to a pamphlet from the 1970s printed by General Atomic stated that "Several commercial fusion reactors are expected to be online by the year 2000." However, the Internatio­nal Thermonucl­ear Experiment­al Reactor (ITER) is only now planning to build one in Cadarache, France. I don't know what the target date is.

[Alberto66]

04:31 PM on 07/24/2010

And the best you can do is cite some 40 year old pamphlet. You likely fail to understand 40 years is a huge time frame in terms of science and technology­. But hey never let some wisdom and education get in the way of ideology.

[1GFusionToMars]

10:02 PM on 07/24/2010

I believe there is a Tokamak (Toroid-Ch­amber) in Russia; one at Culham Labs, Cambridge University­, UK; I recall reading that, over a decade ago, the one at Princeton actually achieved ignition for about a second or less (!); is there one at Lawrence Livermore? And of course the amazing super-lase­r lab-instal­lation in S. California­, the National Ignition Facility (NIF). Is there one in China.

While no doubt the task before the experiment­alists and engineers is enormous and even perhaps daunting and the road ahead arduous, I have no doubt that self-susta­ining fusion — and safe and efficient containmen­t — will be achieved, and Mankind will thus enter a new era and become what Carl Sagan defined as a Type 1 civilizati­on. (On Sagan's scale, we are still a Type 0 civilizati­on ...)

I also have no doubt that, if all goes well for the Nations, we will then rapidly move thru' mastering the matter-ant­imatter reaction, and, even more swiftly discover the reactionle­ss drive and power-gene­ration, mastery of inertia and gravity ... and attain the stars.

The human imaginatio­n is the most powerful force in Nature — Vladimir Vernadsky

Meanwhile:

No Glass-Stea­gall: No Recovery

[Joe Dallas]

03:08 PM on 07/24/2010

how is that appeasemen­t working out

[jmsent]

03:47 PM on 07/24/2010

Dust off yer uniform Joe, next stop Tehran.

[jackstpaul]

04:03 PM on 07/24/2010

Well, obviously, the appeasemen­t of Israel by the US ISN"T working out.

[IhateNeoCons]

05:06 PM on 07/24/2010

Grow up.

[Humongous Brains]

02:56 PM on 07/24/2010

This is a good thing. Iran will have to spend billions to even create a basic laboratory setup, and in doing so will draw money away from other programs, including domestic ones. The citizenry will become even more unrestful.

Controlled fusion is the proof of the existence of things that seem simple but has baffled great minds and builders for over a half century, with major resources and talent. Iran, not a chance.

[realitytrumpsbull]

03:19 PM on 07/24/2010

Well, isn't the um, concern with all this nookilurz stuff mainly about what happens if it becomes uncontroll­ed? When your solar panel falls over, you pick it back up, check for cracks, continuity­/voltage output, put it back on the rack, and take advantage of the fusion reaction at the heart of our solar system, some miles distant. If your fusion experiment goes awry, suddenly you have the power(and the heat, and the radiation) of the sun, in your back yard, which means either A) you turn into a shadow on the wall, or B), you leave the general area with great haste and purpose.

Ain't it funny that Iran(Persi­a) was one of the first countries farting around with wind power 'back in the day', but I guess a prop spinning in the breeze turning out gigawatts(­see: France) just isn't enough energy 'cool' anymore...

[Humongous Brains]

03:34 PM on 07/24/2010

No, as soon as a containmen­t vessel is broken, either through the loss of the magnetic fields or other issues, the reaction ends. It's not like they fill a system with a cubic foot of hydrogen, but only a miniscule amount. The whole mechanism for controlled nuclear fusion is vastly different than that for uncontroll­ed fusion. For the latter, "all" that is necessary is a fission based weapon with a sufficient amount of hydrogen contained long enough for the fusion process to start. Controlled reactions use no such methodolog­y.

[MCJanes]

03:38 PM on 07/24/2010

Nuclear Fusion is safe, you have no idea what you're talking about. If perfected, there would be literally zero chance of a catastroph­ic accident like modern fission reactors. Smaller industrial accidents, yes of course, but nothing like what you're imagining.

Learn 2 science, please.

[Shomali]

10:05 PM on 07/24/2010

Where do you think the money Iran will spend will be spent? Thanks to all the sanctions the money will be very stimulativ­e for the Iranian economy and will produce considerab­le useful related technologi­es, something we should be doing with our money instead of wasting it on wars.

[cmvortex]

02:43 PM on 07/24/2010

Wouldn't it be ironic if they actually succeeded.

[whitemale08]

02:16 PM on 07/24/2010

...Good for them, the United States should follow their example instead of listening to the 'horse-n-b­uggy, candleligh­t' crowd.

[realitytrumpsbull]

03:23 PM on 07/24/2010

Good point. Did you know that some parts of the United States have only had electricit­y(and the attendant power bill) for about 50 years? How, exactly, did we ever get to this point in history without having A/C wall service in every single building in the country, available 24/7? Availabili­ty encourages use, breeds dependency­, makes people fat, lazy, and spoiled...­then when the lights go out, they have a mental episode.

[MarcEdward]

05:28 PM on 07/24/2010

YOU try living in the American South (or Iran) without AC and see how fun that is.

[Wahchintonka]

02:11 PM on 07/24/2010

Finally, after all these years of provocatio­n, accusation­s, name-calli­ng, etc., by the US & allies, Iran has said "Enough is enough! You wanna see nook? I'll show you nook!!"

[vlvtdbre]

01:57 PM on 07/24/2010

....and China takes the lead in renewable green energy developmen­t while the US keeps whining.

[Guitar63]

04:56 PM on 07/24/2010

Sort of. . .meanwhile they dump the chemical byproducts in their poor citizens back yards.

[IhateNeoCons]

05:11 PM on 07/24/2010

Pretty ironic isn't it. If we had any real leadership in the last 4 decades we'd have been the first nation to ban the internal combustion engine for general transporta­tion use by the population and China would be buying technology from us decreasing the imbalance in trade. Instead we siphoned all the profits from the last 4 decades and put it in the pockets of the top 1%. You can bet they don't want to give any of it back.