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418 || AWSAR Awarded Popular Science Stories - 2019
and harmful greenhouse gases, causing global warming. Nuclear fuel is also not safe in terms of environmental issues and accidental hazards. The toxic waste from nuclear power plants creates
atmospheric, land and water pollution. The United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has clearly stated that the combustion of these fuels is causing a noticeable change in the global weather and climate patterns of the earth that will be going to affect humanity in the long run.
Nowadays, the standard
of living and the status of
development are directly
proportional to the energy
consumed by that country.
It was found that almost 20% of the richest country consumes 80% of all the total energy being produced. As India is transiting from a developing country to a developed one, its energy consumption is also shooting like a rocket. Till now, we have been dependent on fossil fuels and nuclear fuels, but they have their downsides, too. The other renewable energy sources such as wind energy and solar energy are not that efficient. We have to think of some alternative sources of energy that are sustainable, clean and efficient.
Today, there is an international effort the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project to solve the energy problem for future generations to come. ITER is a nuclear fusion reactor built in a small province called Saint-Paul-lès-Durance in Southern France. The project aims to prove the feasibility of nuclear fusion as an efficient, clean, safe and sustainable source of energy. The ITER project is going to be the world’s largest fusion experiment. It is a joint venture of seven partners, namely Europe, China, India, Japan,
Korea, Russia and the USA. In this 25 billion dollars global project, Europe is contributing almost half of the cost of construction, while all other members are contributing the rest
of the expense equally in the form of in-kind as well as in funds. All the partners will get 100% access to the data and technology involved in the entire project.
The major contribution from India is to build the whole vessel of the ITER-machine within which the entire reactor can exist. This outer shell or vessel is called the cryostat, and its purpose is to provide isolation from the very hot environment inside the reactor to the outside instruments such
as magnets, power supplies and measurement (or diagnostic) instruments. The vessel is equipped with a cooling water system and a cryogenic system, which are required to maintain very low temperatures. This 3880 tonnes vacuum-compatible vessel is almost 30 m in height and in diameter and can be
considered as a big refrigerator or a thermos flask {Image taken from: https://www.iter-india. org/overview}.
India’s contribution is limited to deliver not
A recent report issued by the World Resources Forum states that approximately 40 billion tonnes of resources have already been extracted from the earth. It is estimated that the energy demands will triple by 2050 as the population grows to 9 billion.