Context: Recently, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) Organization is celebrating the Start of Assembly of the ITER Tokamak in France.
Key highlights

• The occasion is virtually hosted by France.
• PM called ITER to be a perfect illustration of the age-old Indian belief - Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam - the entire world is working together for the betterment of Mankind
• India stands proud with its fair share of contributions in terms of cryogenic systems, multi megawatt power supplies and running diagnostic tests.

About ITER

• ITER is an energy project located in Cadarache, Southern France.
• It is the largest plasma-based fusion reactor ever built.
• It will be the first fusion device to maintain fusion for long periods of time.
• ITER will also be the first fusion device to test the integrated technologies, materials, and physical regimes necessary for the commercial production of fusion-based electricity.
• ITER will work on the “Tokamak” concept where the reaction of hydrogen isotopes Deuterium and Tritium produces energy by the mass-energy conversion principle, thereby proving to be a source of unlimited energy.
• The idea of the ITER was first launched in 1985.
• It is a collaborative project involving thousands of engineers and scientists from 35 countries.
• As of 2019, 66% of the project’s construction has been completed.
• ITER members: European Union, China, India, USA, Japan, Russia and South Korea.
• India formally joined the ITER Project in 2005.
• ITER Organization (IO) is the central team responsible for construction at site and operation, while the ITER partners created their own domestic agencies to deliver their commitments to ITER. ITER-India is the Indian domestic agency.
• ITER-India is a specially empowered project of the Institute for Plasma Research (IPR), an aided organization under the Department of Atomic Energy, Govt. of India.

India is responsible for the delivery of the following ITER packages: Cryostat; In-wall Shielding; Cooling Water System; Cryogenic System; Ion-Cyclotron RF Heating System; Electron Cyclotron RF Heating System; Diagnostic Neutral Beam System; Power Supplies and Diagnostics.

About Tokamak

• First developed by Soviet research in the late 1960s. The term tokamak stands for the toroidal chamber with magnetic coils.
• A tokamak is an experimental machine designed to harness the energy of fusion. Inside a tokamak, the energy produced through the fusion of atoms is absorbed as heat in the walls of the vessel.
• Just like a conventional power plant, a fusion power plant will use this heat to produce steam and then electricity by way of turbines and generators.
• The heart of a tokamak is its doughnut-shaped vacuum chamber. Inside, under the influence of extreme heat and pressure, gaseous hydrogen fuel becomes a plasma.