Wednesday, Nov 22, 2006
International
India becomes part of ITER experiment http://www.hindu.com/2006/11/22/stories/2006112205021200.htm
Vaiju Naravane
Paris: India on Tuesday became part of a seven-member international consortium to launch a multi-billion dollar experimental fusion reactor called ITER. Construction of the 10-billion-euro project which will last a decade will begin next year in France's southern region of Cadarache. The aim of the research reactor is to create fusion technologies that could emulate the power of the sun, that is, to develop a source of limitless, clean energy.
"This is a new step in an exceptional adventure, a hand held out to future generations," French President Jacques Chirac said after leading the signing ceremony in Paris that ended decades of tortuous negotiations. India was represented by Dr. Anil Kakodkar, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission and Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy. Besides India, there were representatives from the European Union, China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States.
Originally called the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor but now known officially by its acronym ITER (or "the way" in Latin) the project will experiment with fusion technologies. Instead of splitting the atom - the principle behind current nuclear plants - scientists will seek to harness nuclear fusion: the power of the sun and the stars achieved by fusing together atomic nuclei.
If it is successful, a prototype commercial reactor will be built, and if that works, fusion technology will be rolled out across the world. Mr. Chirac said the success of the reactor would mean "we will be able to derive as much energy from a litre of seawater as from a litre of petrol or a kilo of coal."
The EU is to put up half the cost of building the reactor, with the rest evenly divided among the other parties. The project will employ 400 scientists, two-thirds of them non-French.
Following years of wrangling, Japan agreed in 2005 to withdraw its bid to host the project - in exchange for 20 per cent of staff posts including the director general's job.
A Japanese engineer-turned ambassador, Kaname Ikeda, was appointed earlier this month to head the project.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso called the signing "a major event" and a step forward to finding new energy sources that did not cause climate change.
In a fusion reaction, energy is released when light atomic nuclei - the hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium - are fused together to form heavier atomic nuclei.
To use controlled fusion reactions on Earth as an energy source, it is necessary to heat a gas to temperatures exceeding 100 million Celsius - many times hotter than the centre of the sun.
One of the attractions of fusion is the tiny amount of fuel needed. The release of energy from a fusion reaction is 10 million times greater than from a typical chemical reaction, such as burning a fossil fuel.
But the project has been criticised by environmental groups such as Greenpeace, which argue that the enormous cost will suck funds away from other areas of alternative energy research, with no guarantee that an effective method of simulating and harnessing the fusion process will ever be found.
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