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The Institute for Plasma Research (IPR), Gandhinagar, has commissioned an 82.6 GHz, 400 kW gyrotron and integrated it with the SST-1 tokamak, a milestone for India's fusion research programme.
The gyrotron beams high-frequency microwaves into the plasma to heat it and keep it hot, through electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH). It can heat at both the fundamental and second harmonics.
It upgrades the earlier 42 GHz, 500 kW ECRH unit used on SST-1 and Aditya-U, and delivers power into the tokamak through a 20-metre transmission line.
SST-1 is an experimental research device, not a power plant. The upgrade supports studies of longer-pulse, more stable plasmas.
A tokamak holds hot plasma in a doughnut-shaped chamber using strong magnetic fields, because no wall can touch it. A gyrotron produces high-power microwaves, which the plasma's electrons absorb at their cyclotron frequency. This heats the plasma towards the conditions light nuclei need in order to fuse.
Simple Analogy: Like a microwave oven heating food, but aimed at plasma held in a magnetic bottle.
India's main plasma physics and fusion institute. Founded 1986 as an autonomous institute under DAE; operates the SST-1 and Aditya tokamaks.
India's Domestic Agency for ITER, set up under IPR, that supplies India's in-kind contributions to the project
International experimental fusion reactor project. Its seven members are the EU, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the USA.
| Feature | Nuclear fusion | Nuclear fission |
|---|---|---|
| Process | Light nuclei combine | Heavy nuclei split |
| Typical fuel | Hydrogen isotopes (deuterium, tritium) | Uranium-235, plutonium-239 |
| Status in India | Experimental (SST-1, Aditya-U; ITER partner) | Commercial power reactors in operation |
| Long-lived radioactive waste | Much less | Significant |
GS Paper III > Science & Technology > Energy (nuclear fusion); Prelims > S&T
General Awareness > Science & Technology > Indian research institutions
India is an important member of the 'International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor'. If this experiment succeeds, what is the immediate advantage for India?
Answer: It can build fusion reactors for power generation
A high-power vacuum device that produces millimetre-wave microwaves, used to heat fusion plasma
Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating: plasma heating by microwaves tuned to the electrons' gyration frequency in a magnetic field
Steady State Superconducting Tokamak-1, IPR Gandhinagar, fully commissioned in 2013