China has made the world’s first high-temperature superconducting Tokamak device – ‘HH70’.
- Previously, the EU and Japan inaugurated JT-60SA, the world’s largest and most advanced Tokamak fusion reactor in Japan and pledged support to advance fusion research for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER).
- Tokamak is a machine for controlled thermonuclear fusion with a toroidal shape, similar to a doughnut.
Nuclear Fusion
- A process by which two light atomic nuclei combine to form a single heavier one while releasing massive amounts of energy.
- In nuclear fission, on the other hand, large atomic nuclei are split into smaller atomic nuclei to release energy.
- Most fusion reactors use a mixture of deuterium and tritium – hydrogen atom isotopes that contain extra neutrons.
About ITER
- ITER is a global scientific partnership between China, Europe, Japan, India, the Republic of Korea, Russia and the US.It’s currently under construction in France.
- Objective: To prove the viability of fusion as an energy source.
- It will be the largest Tokamak device to test magnetic confinement to produce fusion energy.
- ITER has been designed for high fusion power gain with about 10-fold return (expressed as Q 2 10),i.e., ratio of heating input power to thermal output power.
ITER – India
- India formally joined the ITER Project in 2005
- ITER-India is a specially empowered project of the Institute for Plasma Research (IPR). IPR is an aided organisation under the Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India.
