International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER)

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International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER): About

The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is an international collaboration between seven countries to demonstrate nuclear fusion as a clean source of unlimited energy.
International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) will be the first fusion device that will test the integrated technologies, materials, and physics regimes needed for the commercial production of fusion-based electricity.
International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is known as the world’s largest tokamak.
Partners:
- China, the European Union, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and the United States are the countries that have collaborated on a 35-year collaboration to build and operate the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) experimental device.
- The members will share of the cost of project construction, operation and decommissioning.
- The experimental results and any intellectual property generated by the fabrication, construction and operation phases will also be shared.
- Europe will contribute the largest portion of construction costs (45.6 percent); the remainder is shared equally by others (9.1 percent each).

India’s Institute for Plasma Research (IPR) has supplied approximately four km of cryolines and about six km of return lines for warm gases.
The IPR has also contributed to the completion of the assembly of top lid sectors of the cryostat.

A tokamak is a machine that holds plasma using magnetic fields in a donut shape. It is designed to harness the energy of fusion.
The tokamak has been adopted around the world as the most suitable configuration of magnetic fusion device.
Working:
- The device will use extreme heat and pressure to convert gaseous hydrogen fuel into plasma.
- The charged particles of the plasma can be controlled by the massive magnetic coils placed around the walls.
- The heat generated during fusion will be used to produce steam and then electricity by way of turbines and generators.

Fusion is the source of energy for the Sun and stars. Hydrogen nuclei collide, fuse into heavier helium atoms and release tremendous amounts of energy during the process.
The process releases energy because the total mass of the resulting single nucleus is below the mass of the two original nuclei.
The most efficient fusion reaction in the laboratory setting would be the reaction between two hydrogen isotopes, deuterium (D) and tritium (T).
Conditions for nuclear fusion:
- Very high temperature (about 150,000,000° Celsius)
- Sufficient plasma particle density (to increase the likelihood of collisions)
- Sufficient time of confinement (to hold the plasma)
Benefits of nuclear fusion energy:
- No radioactive waste
- High efficiency
- Inexpensive fuel
- No greenhouse gases are emitted
- High energy density
- No risk of meltdown of reactor