India has taken a lead over others in delivering equipment to France for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) research project which is aimed at generating energy through nuclear fusion.
India is one of the seven member entities including China, USA, Russia, Japan, South Korea and the European Union for the ITER, which is coming up in southern France.
"Of the total shipping load delivered so far, almost 40 per cent of load has come from India which is leading. As time progresses, loads will also reach from other countries. But at the moment, a very large number of delivery has been made form India," ITER-India project director Sirish Deshpande.
He was talking to reporters on the sidelines of the 27th International Atomic Energy Agency's Fusion Energy Conference being organised here.
As per the agreement, India has agreed to make nine per cent of in-kind contribution for the project, which will require an investment of Rs 10,000 crore, he said.
"Out of this, various orders worth Rs 3500 crore have already been placed," said Deshpande.
More From This Section
ITER Director General Bernard Bigot, who was a key speaker at the event, told reporters that in the next three years, all large equipment required for the project will be delivered at the site for assembling.
He said 58 per cent of work towards the first plasma stage of 2025 stood completed by September this year, progressing at the rate of 0.7-0.8 per cent every month.
"India has agreed to supply nine per cent of the value to the construction cost. There are different components, and diversity of equipment. Due to their size and precision, some are pushing frontiers of knowledge, and some are very innovative," he said.
Bigot said India is doing very well in terms of delivery of equipment for the project.
"India is most advanced in terms of delivery. A large part of cryostat is complete, and India is doing very well on this front. The ITER agreement was signed in November 2006, when the breakdown of contributions was specified.
"It has been quite a large effort to pass from conceptual design to executive design and clearly for the first-of-the-kind equipment, we have many innovative technologies, so the cost has enlarged from when it was politically conceptualised," said Bigot.
"Up to 2015, many changes have been constituted. Since 2015, we have frozen the design, and it is my commitment to keep the cost under control. Since last three years, we have progressed at the rate of 0.7 per cent per month," Bigot said.
The EU's share among member entities in terms of construction and manufacturing is around 45 per cent while other six entities will contribute around 9 per cent each, he added.
ITER is a large-scale scientific experiment that aims to demonstrate that it is possible to produce commercial energy from fusion.
It is an experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor that is being built next to the Cadarache facility in Saint-Paul-ls-Durance, in Provence, southern France.
The facility is expected to finish its construction phase in 2025 and will start commissioning the reactor that same year. Initial plasma experiments are scheduled to begin in 2025, with full deuteriumtritium fusion experiments starting in 2035.
Nuclear energy all over the world is generated now by Fission technology which is generated by splitting atoms in controlled environment.
While, in nuclear Fusion technology, atomic nuclei are brought together to form heavy nuclei, in the process generating huge amount of energy.