ITER celebrated start of Assembly of the ITER Tokamak

International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) celebrated the start of Assembly of the ITER Tokamak at Saint-Paul-Lez-Durance, France. It was hosted virtually by the French President and all ITER member countries participated either in person, or electronically through remote mode.

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Key-Points

India also participated in the celebrations and considered the global participation of scientists to project as a perfect illustration of the age-old Indian belief – Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.

India also mentioned about its fair share in terms of its in-kind contributions, viz., the cryostat, cryogenic and cryo-distribution systems, auxiliary heating devices, multi megawatt power supplies, etc.

ITER cryostat is manufactured by India (Larsen and Tourbo). Cryostat is a chamber that can maintain very low temperatures.

It is the largest stainless steel high-vacuum pressure chamber ever built (16,000 m3) providing the high vacuum, ultra cool environment for the ITER vacuum vessel and the superconducting magnets.

The target for the first plasma is 2025. At extreme temperatures, electrons are separated from nuclei and a gas becomes a plasma—an ionized state of matter similar to a gas.

The ITER members include China, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States.

According to the ITER Agreement (2006), the above mentioned seven members will share the cost of project construction, operation and decommissioning.

They also share the experimental results and any intellectual property generated by the fabrication, construction and operation phases.