A case for sustainable development of nuclear energy and a brief account of Iran’s nuclear programme

Stimulated by the urgency of the Second World War, nuclear science progressed rapidly from the discovery of the neutron by Sir James Chadwick in 1932. Out of this basic knowledge came the discovery in 1939 that when atoms fission (i.e. are split), energy is released. This led in turn to the first controlled chain reaction (1943), the first atomic weapon (1945), and the first production of electricity using nuclear energy (1951). Thus, within a span of twenty years, nuclear energy developed from first principles to practical demonstration.