India joined 6 other nations to sign
the International Thermonuclear
Experiment Reactor (ITER) Agreement
contributing 10% of project cost with
manufactured equipment to develop a
prototype reactor that will make
atomic fusion the next major source of
energy. Fusion energy does not produce
green house gasses, leave radioactive
waste materials, nor pollute the
environment. The other countries in
this venture are the US, EU, Russia,
China, Japan, and South Korea.
Department of Atomic Energy Anil
Kakodkar said that India is severely
energy deficient and even if there is
“5000 kilowatts per hour per capital
per year, this is nothing compared to
the per capital energy consumption of
Europe. This very modest target would
mean enhancing the electricity
consumption in India by a factor of 11
or 12.”
Director of the Institute of Plasma
Research Dr. P.K. Kaw will lead the
project from the Indian side. India
has already developed two experimental
reactors called
Aditya and SST-1 but feels that
the collaboration will help it get to
the ultimate point of commercial power
generation using fusion energy faster.
India was invited to join the other
countries by the US through the
Global Nuclear Energy Partnership.
The ITER project will be located at
Cadarache in France and the other six
members of the consortium are European
Union, United States, Russia, China,
Japan, and South Korea. India had
earlier participated in the European
Center for Nuclear Research (CERN)
large hadron collider project with
indigenously designed and developed
equipment. That contribution earned it
observer status in CERN.
