Iran sets 2020 target to build experimental reactor

CTV麻豆影视

Iran sets 2020 target to build experimental reactor

The Associated Press Published Monday, August 30, 2010 2:53PM EDT

An Iranian security guard walks past a gate of the Bushehr nuclear power plant as its reactor building is seen in background, just outside the city of Bushehr 1,245 kilometres south of the capital Tehran, Iran, Friday, Aug. 20, 2010. (AP / Vahid Salemi)

Text:

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran says it has set a 2020 target date to build its first experimental nuclear fusion reactor, a feat that has yet to be achieved by any nation.

Iran said in July that its nuclear agency began research on the experimental reactor.

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.

Asghar Sediqzadeh, the head of the new fusion research centre, is quoted by the semi-official ISNA news agency as saying the centre will hire 100 experts to join the national project.

Tehran is not known to have carried out anything but basic fusion research.