Indian Firm Helped Build World's 1st Fusion Reactor For Endless Clean Energy

Global demand for energy is skyrocketing with population growth. On top of this, we know for a fact that relying on fossil fuels is not going to sustain the planet for long.

So pursuit for a limitless energy source that does not harm our environment is key for shaping our future. How about using the energy source of the sun, or any other star?

Reuters

Nuclear fusion is capable of producing ¡°nearly four million times more energy than a chemical reaction such as the burning of coal, oil or gas.¡± The same energy would be ¡°four times as much as nuclear fission reactions (at equal mass).¡±

With these claims, ITER is eyeing the destiny of humankind. Cracking the mystery around controlled fusion reactions to attain energy.

ITER recently shared an update stating that the project has achieved an important milestone. India¡¯s engineering major Larsen & Toubro has finished building the world's largest steel vacuum chamber. The 3,800-tonne ITER cryostat will form a critical part of the ITER machine - world¡¯s largest tokamak - a magnetic fusion device.

Building world's largest fusion energy reactor

An industrial adventure that began in 2012 has come to an end for the Larsen & Toubro teams in Hazira, India. (Image: ITER)

Larsen & Toubro received the contract from the Indian Domestic Agency for the fabrication of ITER cryostat in September 2012. Nearly eight years after, the firm has now announced that the final segments are ready for shipment to ITER.

Parts weighing around 650 tonnes in total will leave India for the ITER site in France. These parts will then be assembled and welded on site. This, however, is not the first of such shipments.

Due to the sheer size of the component, Larsen & Toubro had to plan for a ¡°three-stage, kit-like process.¡± This involved the manufacturing of 54 of its segments in India. The segments were then to be shipped to ITER for assembly in four large sections. These sections include the base, lower cylinder, upper cylinder and the top lid. The four segments were then to be integrated and welded together in the Tokamak Pit.

L&T claims to have handed over three of the four cryostat sections to the ITER Organization since work began on site in 2016. On 26 May 2020 the cryostat base was installed in the Tokamak pit. Next, the lower cylinder will be lowered into the pit in August this year.

Larsen & Toubro worked on the project from the beginning, with MAN Energy Solutions of Germany as the subcontractor, for welding operations at the ITER site.

Promise of fusion energy to the world

The last 12 segments plus central disk of the total 54 segments for the cryostat are nearly ready for shipment. (Image: ITER)

The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor or ITER is a $23.7 billion project located in southern France that has been funded by a total of 35 nations in arguably humanity¡¯s biggest hope for utopia.

The purpose of the resulting tokamak that will be the largest of its kind in the world, is to prove the feasibility of fusion as a large-scale and carbon-free source of energy. A combination of 10 million parts, the tokamak will be the mecca of new-age fusion science. If and when it achieves its purpose, the tokamak will very much shape the fusion power plants of tomorrow.

That is, if there ever comes a thing. And sticking with the optimism here, fusion fuels are considered to be ¡°nearly inexhaustible.¡± So let us pray we see such a future soon!