Iran has conducted research into nuclear fusion, an Iranian nuclear official was reported as saying Monday by state television. It was the first time the country declared such a development. "Iranian nuclear scientists are competing with the advanced world in the field of producing nuclear energy through fusion," the official, Sadat Hosseini, was reported as saying by the television.Nuclear fusion is the process by which multiple nuclei join together to form a heavier nucleus. It is accompanied by the release or absorption of energy depending on the masses of the nuclei involved. Hosseini, who runs the technical department at the Nuclear Research Center of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, added: "The first research of nuclear fusion in Iran was done five years ago."
It was not immediately clear why Iran had decided to announce the research only now, but the move seemed to be part of the country's defiance of world calls for it to limit its nuclear program to activities that could not be used for making weapons. Nuclear fusion is employed by certain kinds of atomic bomb.