Iran’s Atomic Energy Chief Calls Nuclear Fusion a Strategic Future Energy Source
Mohammad Eslami says Iran must accelerate its national fusion program and develop the technology domestically despite sanctions and limited international cooperation.
Iranian Atomic Energy Organization chief Mohammad Eslami said Iran must accelerate its domestic nuclear fusion program, which he called a future energy source. He cited sanctions and a lack of international cooperation as reasons for relying on domestic capabilities, while highlighting collaboration with knowledge-based companies and universities. Three plasma diagnostic systems and a non-destructive testing laboratory were unveiled at the same ceremony.
TEHRAN — Mohammad Eslami, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, said the country cannot afford to fall behind in nuclear fusion, describing it as a future energy source and a field in which developed countries are investing.
Speaking Wednesday at a ceremony marking Iran’s Government Week and unveiling four technology-based achievements, Eslami said Iran’s nuclear industry had advanced despite what he characterized as psychological operations, sanctions, conspiracies and acts of sabotage aimed at obstructing its progress.
“ The nuclear fusion project, which is considered the energy of the future and in which all developed countries are investing, is not something we can neglect or allow ourselves to fall behind in,” Eslami said, according to Iran’s official IRNA news agency.
Eslami said Iran would need to rely on its own capabilities because, in his assessment, no country was cooperating with it in the field. He called for opportunities to be created for domestic talent and organizations able to contribute to the program.
He also said the organization’s “open innovation” model, launched in 2023, had enabled a network of knowledge-based companies to participate in nuclear technology projects. According to Eslami, Iran’s fusion teams had moved beyond proof-of-concept work and entered stages involving the construction of systems and capabilities.
Eslami urged the government to strengthen cooperation with universities, laboratories and technology companies, saying the fusion sector needed both professors and students as well as stronger academic research infrastructure. He added that Iran’s national fusion plan should be pursued more quickly and intensively in order to produce final products.
The ceremony also included the opening of a center for training in non-destructive testing, or NDT. Eslami said such testing was needed across the country’s industries and could support materials assessment, quality control, personnel certification and technical training.
Ali Norouzi, an Atomic Energy Organization official and head of Iran’s Advanced Technologies Company, said plasma diagnostic systems were among the projects developed by the organization. He said these systems were essential for observing and controlling plasma in fusion research, where temperatures can reach several million degrees Celsius.
Norouzi said conventional diagnostic equipment could not adequately measure such plasma conditions, including ion and electron temperatures, density and energy loss. He said Iran had developed and deployed several specialized systems, including a photoelectron system, a bolometry system and a charge-exchange system.
The three plasma diagnostic systems and the NDT laboratory were formally unveiled at the ceremony, which was attended by Eslami and senior officials from Iran’s nuclear sector.