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Page added on April 11, 2015

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India: We will build our own Fusion Reactor

India: We will build our own Fusion Reactor thumbnail

The Indian government has just given a major boost to domestic nuclear fusion research, by sanctioning the expenditure of Rs 2,500 crore (around $400 million by my calculation) as seed money, to spur interest in fusion research.

According to The Times of India;

India is presently one of the seven partner countries in world’s biggest energy research project – the ITER – that is coming up in Cadarche, France.

“Presently, our contribution as one of the seven partners in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project in France is 10%. The knowledge that we gain will be used to set up our own demonstrator reactors at home. We will begin by setting up an experimental version of the Cadarche ITER reactor in France here,” ITER-India’s project director Shishir Deshpande said here on Monday night.

Deshpande along with ITER’s top brass – Dr Sergio Orlandi (director – central engineering and plant) and deputy director general Dr Remmelt Haange — is touring India to review progress made by Indian companies involved in the fusion reactor project.

Sources said that the central government has sanctioned Rs 2,500 crore to seed research in nuclear fusion.

Read More: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/India-to-set-up-its-own-mini-N-fusion-reactor/articleshow/46763586.cms

India is also very active in Thorium fission research – a new 300Mw Thorium reactor is scheduled to go online in 2016. India takes Thorium very seriously. Although India does have some significant Uranium deposits, India has around 25% of the world’s known Thorium reserves.

whatts up with that



12 Comments on "India: We will build our own Fusion Reactor"

  1. Plantagenet on Sat, 11th Apr 2015 11:20 am 

    Obama and Modi signed an accord to cooperate on nuclear research when Obama last visited India, so the US will also be participating in this fusion research.

  2. BobInget on Sat, 11th Apr 2015 11:41 am 

    This con-fusion reminds us of when NASA
    spent a million on a ball point pen that would
    write in zero gravity.

    One Russian cosmonaut observed:
    “We use pencils”.

    If we spent one tenth of the money ‘protecting’ “Our Oil” in the ME and elsewhere, we could turn out solar panels
    and mirror devices like we made B 17’s
    and B 25’s during WW/2.
    (one new bomber came off the ‘line’ every
    hour)

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_aircraft_production_during_World_War_II

    “We use solar”

  3. Bob Owens on Sat, 11th Apr 2015 12:19 pm 

    This poor country with a huge population and poor infrastructure is going to spend its money on Fusion? Where is common sense? Not in India. I suspect they are thinking it will have some military value. They would best be served with solar/wind power and serious family planning.

  4. Perk Earl on Sat, 11th Apr 2015 2:20 pm 

    I think this is a logical progression, i.e. to look to fusion, even if it isn’t economically or functionally feasible, as the next energy supply, knowing full well oil will soon peak and the descent will lead to economic and political upheavel.

    It’s either fusion or incredible amounts of diffuse energy from solar and wind, if that is feasible as net energy from oil descends.

    It’s a logical progression from other energy sources to look to fusion out of desperation. It’s like a football team attempting a hail mary pass with seconds left in the game. In this case there are a few years but it’s the biggest game going, the global economy.

    It’s also the final extension of complexity, that ledge out there which beckons from the platform of all the complexity built up to this point. Either another layer of complexity can be reached to continue BAU, or BAU descends into lower layers of less complexity.

    So there’s nothing surprising in this decision by India. They just want to know they tried everything, before the desperation of trying to feed 1.1 billion people on the steep descent becomes a nightmare on a scale never before witnessed in human history.

  5. Go Speed Racer on Sat, 11th Apr 2015 4:09 pm 

    They should look to fission. It actually works. There is plenty of techno-engineering opportunity, to develop future designs which would be safe, economical, efficient. Things like pebble-bed design, or liquid sodium, thorium, etc. Its very clear fission could be made safe and practical.

    HOWEVER apparently they tore a page out of the USA playbook, fusion makes a great welfare-scam, sort of like selling laundry soap to your friends at church.

    They figure once they start their supposed fusion program, then it will be subsidized by the United Nations, other countries, etc. This is the real thinking. Has to do with grabbing money, nothing to do with generating energy. If they wanted to generate energy they would study superior fission designs. Improved fission reactors, is a solution which would work, therefore its very important nobody do it.

    What fusion is good for, is the fusion bomb. Light one off in the middle of that Fukushima complex, and the whole thing would be cleaned up in one afternoon. Wouldn’t cost much either.

    But generate electricity with fusion? still waiting.

  6. Perk Earl on Sat, 11th Apr 2015 4:56 pm 

    “What fusion is good for, is the fusion bomb. Light one off in the middle of that Fukushima complex, and the whole thing would be cleaned up in one afternoon. Wouldn’t cost much either.”

    Fire in the hole! Good idea speed racer. What yield would be the happy medium between making sure the area was sealed in radioactive glass and destruction to the civilian neighborhoods? Isn’t a 20 mega thermo nuke the smallest? What’s the minimum critical threshold of mass to cause the chain reaction?

    Ever see that footage of the time they did a fusion bomb by adding a catalyst. There were two parts, the one they figured to be the catalyst and the majority they thought was inert. Then to their surprise the inert part was also catalytic and enriched the yield by a lot, I forget exactly the number but it really shocked the people watching as the subsequent detonation got much bigger than expected.

  7. BobInget on Sat, 11th Apr 2015 6:49 pm 

    Central power resources of any sort are limited
    by distribution network.s (the grid)

    Point of use OTOH, wastes little energy transporting power. (fuel cells, solar cells, wind)

    Most folks in India don’t have assess to toilets
    much less electricity. In large cities few pay.
    Instead, elaborate methods are concocted to steal power. There is little incentive to build
    large, centrally located power plants.

    Two of the ‘hottest selling’ items today in India
    are refrigerators (and motor bikes).
    Most villagers have only seen refrigerators on TV.

  8. Perk Earl on Sat, 11th Apr 2015 7:08 pm 

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjiWBkiBZQU

    ‘The deadly miscalculation at Castle Bravo’

    That’s the 4.5 minute video of the mis-calculation. Oops!

  9. GregT on Sat, 11th Apr 2015 7:37 pm 

    Oops indeed.

    Children playing with fire.

  10. Davy on Sat, 11th Apr 2015 9:51 pm 

    India and Pakistan amaze me. They have significant overshoot issues but their leadership still wants to waste treasure on national pride projects. India with a space program and other useless pursuits like fusion. Pakistan is buying multiple submarines from China. WTF? Pakistan is an almost failed state that can’t feed and power itself. I am scratching my head now.

  11. Go Speed Racer on Sat, 11th Apr 2015 9:52 pm 

    Hi there Perk Earl, hey great news, we are talking about the same atomic test.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Bravo#/media/File:Castle_Bravo_Blast.jpg

    It was Castle Bravo, at Bikini Atoll, and it overyielded. It was a problem of two isotopes, Lithium-6 and Lithium-7 they did not have the capitol resources to isolate fully. So they decided to ignore the Lithium-7 as inert. Oopsy daisy they got a triple yield. Yee hawww ! Fun for the whole family ! Wow! Pow! Ka boooom !! har har har do that again!! back to the fireworks stand i want another one !!

    Anyway its really not a problem see all the land is ruined in the buffer zone. And if you want to wait for a strong west wind that is OK.

    An you can’t say it would kill everybody with fallout cause they used to light these things off weekly in the 1960’s and we are all still here.

    See how this works? Just one casualty, all those greedy corporatiosn and lazy gubbamint workers who want to profit for the next 60 years pretending to clean it up, raise their children and grandchildren from pretending to give a damn while the radioactive water goes out to sea anyway. THEY would not want us to clean it all up in one afternoon, would they !! Hell they would have to go find a real job, good luck with that !!!

    AND imagine the tourism. Scuba divers, speed boat maniacs, hamburger stands. Truck in some white sand, get a tan at Fukushima lagoon !! Buy yourself a meltdown burger with an extra slice of cheddar cheese !!!

    AND you sell tickets, figure $2000 for a seat at the nearest mountain, dark glasses cost extra. Sell 250,000 tickets and the fusion bomb is all paid for. And we haven’t even gotten started on the T-shirt sales !! “I watched Fukushima blow up the 2nd time”.

    I mean, really, who has got this figured out anyway. Somebody make me V.P. of operations. 🙂

  12. farmrdave on Mon, 13th Apr 2015 5:38 pm 

    It is terrible that the United States who first developed nuclear power is under the control of the “cannot do it” crowd. We have had the tecnowledgy, the ability to build it, and the need for it. Now we will allow India and China to lead the human race into the next age of prosperity. It is a sad time we have fallen behind even India.

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