ITER is an experimental fusion reactor facility under construction in Cadarache, south of France to prove the feasibility of nuclear fusion as a future source of energy. ITER will work on the “Tokamak” concept where the reaction of hydrogen isotopes Deuterium and Tritium produces energy by the mass-energy conversion principle, thereby proving to be a source of unlimited energy. ITER partners are the European Union, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States of America. European Union being the host party contributes 45% while the rest of the parties contribute 9% each. Most of these contributions are through ‘in-kind’ procurement of ITER components. India formally joined the ITER Project in 2005 and the ITER Agreement between the partners was signed in 2006. ITER Organization (IO) is the central team responsible for construction at site and operation, while the ITER partners created their own domestic agencies to deliver their commitments to ITER. ITER-India is the Indian domestic agency, a specially empowered project of the Institute for Plasma Research (IPR), an aided organization under Dept. of Atomic Energy, Govt. of India. ITER-India is responsible for delivery of the following ITER packages: Cryostat, In-wall Shielding, Cooling Water System, Cryogenic System, Ion-Cyclotron RF Heating System, Electron Cyclotron RF Heating System, Diagnostic Neutral Beam System, Power Supplies and some Diagnostics. Additionally, related R&D and experimental activities are being carried out at the ITER-India laboratory in Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
Technology developed:
| In-kind contribution package |
|---|
| Cryostat : 30 m high and 30 m diameter Outer vacuum shell of ITER |
| Cryolines and cryo distribution system : 4 km cryolines, 7 km warm lines and 7 cryodistribution boxes for ITER cryo-plants of capacities 75 kW at 4.5K, 1 MW at 80K & their supply |
| In wall shielding : ~80 % volume between the two shells of vacuum vessel is filled with borated steel (SS304B4, SS304B7) and ferritic steel for neutron shielding and reducing toroidal field ripple. Requires ~9000 blocks from 70,000 precision cut plates. |
| ITER – Cooling water and Heat Rejection System : 10 cells of Cooling Tower : Avg. 510 MW : Highest heat rejection capacity – Peak ~ 1.2 GW 14 Plate type Heat Exchanger: 70 MW each: Possibly at the highest range of design 6 Air cooled Chillers: 450 kW each: First, with requirement of seismic qualification for nuclear site |
| ICRF source system : 9 RF sources : 2.5 MW at VSWR 2.0/35-65MHz/CW OR 3.0 MW at VSWR 1.5/40-55MHz/CW |
| Diagnostic neutral beam system : Detect He ash during D-T phase of ITER plasma and plasma diagnostics using 100 keV 20 A H neutral beam @ 20.7 m from the ion source. This requires extracting and accelerating 100 keV 60 A H- beam from the ion source at an extracted current density of 35 mA/cm2 |
| Power supplies for DNB, ICRF and ECRF systems : DNB: 10 kV, 140 A Extraction PS 90 kV, 70 A Acceleration PS ICRH Driver Stage : 8-18 kV, 250 kW, End stage : 27 kV, 2.8 MW ECRH : 55 kV, 5.5 MW |
| ECRH : 2 gyrotron sources : 1 MW power output at 170 GHz for 3600s pulse length |
Diagnostics: Essential to monitor plasma impurities and emission. Ports are needed to house the Diagnostic systems in position and act as shielding from neutrons.
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| Special material development CuCrZr with % compositions controlled to Cr : 0.6 – 0.8%; Zr : 0.07% to 0.15% ; Cd : 0.01%; Co : 0.05% ; total impurities not to exceed 0.1% |