Importance Of India In ITER Hope For Energy Freedom

ITER is a unique global technological effort of an unprecedented magnitude. It is the way to a new energy paradigm that humanity is hopelessly looking for.

Fremont, CA:  The upcoming $25 billion plasma-based fusion reactor ITER, in which India is a partner, in the hope of energy freedom and a solution to the world that is gripped with a threat to survival mainly by the use of fossil energy and fast-draining conventional energy resources.

These were the views uttered by the former Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of India, Anil Kakodkar. He was on his maiden visit on Tuesday to the ITER facility being inbuilt Saint-Paul-Les-Durance, some 35km north of Aix-en-Provence in southern France.

India is also a partner, in-kind and in-cash, in a first-of-a-kind global collaboration.

IANS spoke with Kakodkar, 76, on the sidelines of an event marking India's achievement of a significant milestone in manufacturing the world's largest high-vacuum chamber, known as a cryostat. He said that fusion energy could sustainably meet the world's energy needs, preventing climate change.

"ITER is a special global technological effort of an unprecedented magnitude. It is, therefore, the way to a new energy paradigm that the humanity is hopelessly looking for," he said in an interview.

Mean that this was his first visit to the facility, Kakodkar, a member of the Atomic Energy Commission, said the progress slope in ITER has increased remarkably in a short period.

"Notwithstanding intense international discussions, the target of restricting global warming to within 1.5 degrees Celsius concerning pre-industrial levels seems nowhere in sight. Moreover, studies have proven that without a significant contribution from non-fossil base load electricity generation, such a goal would be too expensive to be realized in practice," he said.

In today's context, this essentiality meant the greater role of nuclear energy. "Moving forward, this also highlights the important role fusion energy would be required to play in the future. The challenge before the technology community is to ensure that these options are a reality as early as possible," he said.

Surely, before the world reaches the cliff edge, he said the ITER project, in which countries forming more than half of the world population have come together to address this major global challenge, is, therefore, a mission that must be well-timed accomplished.

Remembering his role in shaping India's participation in ITER collaboration, he said he lovingly remembers the formal events in Brussels & Paris that brought ITER and the international organizations to drive it into its formal existence.

Check Out This: Food Business Review

An optimistic Kakodkar added that he is seeing for the day when fusion burn would turn a regular feature in ITER.

Designed to display the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion power, ITER will be the world's largest experimental fusion facility.

Fusion is the process that energizes the sun and the stars; when light atomic nuclei fuse to form heavier ones, a large quantity of energy is released.

Fusion research aims to develop a safe, abundant, and environmentally-responsible energy source.

ITER is now 65% ready. The project intends to complete through first plasma in 2025, the main milestone toward full fusion power by 2035.

ITER is a global collaboration. Europe will give almost half of the cost of its construction. In contrast, the other six members of this international joint venture (China, India, Japan, Korea, Russia, and the US) will help equally the rest.