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.