Iran has about a hundred plasma physicists and about 150 scientists with doctorates in fields related to nuclear fusion, Laban Coblentz told AP in an interview published on Friday.
"So they (Iranians) clearly have a serious academic program," he added.
Stressing that the ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) Charter makes it clear that ITER is a project open to any country that is prepared to have meaningful participation, both technological and financial, he said the Iranians are "very eager to get moving" and join the 35 countries collaborating on building the world's largest experimental fusion machine called a tokamak.
Coblentz said Iran now has three small tokamak machines and is building a fourth.
Iran’s Nuclear Energy Chief Ali Akbar Salehi and Vice President for Science and Technology Sorena Sattari visited the Cadarache research center for nuclear power in France earlier this month to discuss the country's participation in the project.
Fusion-generated nuclear power has no significant weapons applications and nuclear fusion, which joins atoms together, is the process that powers the sun and stars.