Posted on 05/29/2006 5:26:06 PM PDT by MadIvan
IRAN is pressing ahead with research tests on nuclear fusion, a type of atomic reaction which has yet to be developed for commercial power generation, a senior Iranian official said yesterday.
Iran said in the mid-1990s it was working on nuclear fusion research but this is the first mention in years that the work is continuing and comes at a time of heightened tension over Iran's nuclear programme.
Iran has been hauled before the UN Security Council for failing to convince the world that its nuclear work is not being used to make weapons. Tehran insists it only wants to generate electricity.
"Iran has done various fusion tests for research purposes at its Amirabad research reactor over the last few years," the official said, referring to the reactor in central Tehran, adding that Iran was continuing to carry out such tests.
"We do fusion tests for research purposes from time to time," he said.
Commercial nuclear reactors rely on nuclear fission, a process that generates energy from splitting atoms.
Fusion tries to generate power by joining the nuclei of atoms together, but scientists have yet to develop a commercial way of doing this so that it produces more energy than it consumes.
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
Monkeys messing with a football have a better chance of winning the Super Bowl.
Of course you do. When you are trying to produce a missile capable weapon, you need to do that sort of experimentation. Thanks for confirming what we already suspected.
Yes with any luck it will take out half the country.
Now what kind of person would it take to be idiotic enough to think that Iran is promoting nuclear technology for anything else but for political clout?
Perhaps I'm being a bit extreme and Iran really doesn't have billions of barrels of oil beneath them to survive without an alternative energy source to get by with.
There is no peaceful purpose for nuclear fusion.
All day on FoxNews they've been running this story that says that "fusion, like fission, can be used for both peaceful and military purposes."
Sorry, guys, but it's not true.
I cannot fathom the current regime in Iran outlasting the Bush administration.
I was doubtful that Israel would attack Iran until this report. I don't think that Israel could tolerate Iran having an H-bomb. One H-bomb could wipe out all of Israel.
Oh?
A quote from your link:
"that aims to demonstrate the scientific and technical feasibility of fusion power..."
In other words, it has not yet been demonstrated.
Because at that time, it had not yet been demonstrated.
The first nuclear reactor was built at about the same time as the first a-bomb, actually a little before. However, yes, I would say that there was no peaceful use for nuclear power at the time.
And most of the people who are currently working on fusion believe that a usable fusion reactor is decades or even centuries down the road, even in the US. I don't think that Iran is going to supply the break-thru.
Sounds like they want to skip a step and head straight for the H-bomb.
I asked if you would have claimed that there was no military purpose for nuclear fusion/fission. If there were no military purposes, then the military shouldn't have been spending money on it.
And most of the people who are currently working on fusion believe that a usable fusion reactor is decades or even centuries down the road, even in the US. I don't think that Iran is going to supply the break-thru.
Are you concerned that the Iranians are wasting their money? What exactly are you afraid Iran might do with a tokamak, if they built one.
I don't believe they are building a tokamak. They are trying to build an H-bomb. They could care less about a tokamak.
They may or may not be, but as far as I can tell, that is not what this article is about.
You are reading the article wrong. The practicality of fusion is nearly negligible. They admit they are researching fusion. They certainly are not researching something that we've spent 50 years researching and gotten nowhere. They are obviously researching the H-bomb. That is the only practical use for fusion at this time.
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