A

Seminar
On
INTERNATIONAL THERMONUCLEAR EXPERIMENTAL REACTOR .
(ITER)

1
Contents
Introduction
History of ITER
ITER Collaborations
ITER Parameters
Fission v/s Fusion Benefits of fusion
Thermonuclear Fusion Problems with fusion
Conceptual Fusion Reactor ITER Safety
Tokomak
Core of ITER
ITER Site
 Introduction
.
Main objective :
Demonstrate the feasibility of a fusion reactor. This includes generating a plasma that is dominantly heated by
fusion reactions, but also demonstrating that an integrated design can meet the technological constraints

Project
Cost 400 billion rupees construction + 400 billion rupees for operation
Most expensive experiment on earth.
Achieving extended burn of D-T plasmas, with steady state .
Demonstrate or develop all the new technologies required for fusion
power stations.
Demonstrate safety and environmental acceptability of fusion
Producing 10 times the energy input

FIG : ITER
 History Of ITER
2006: Seven participants formally agreed to fund the creation of a nuclear fusion reactor.

2008: Site preparation started.

2009: Site preparation completed.

2010: Tokamak Construction started.

2013: Tokamak Complex construction started.

PREDICTED :

2015: Tokamak assembly will start.

2019: Tokamak assembly completion.
2020: Achievement of first plasma.
2027: Start of deuterium-tritium operation.
 ITER Collaboration
For its size and cost and the involvement of virtually all the most developed countries.
Representing over half of today worlds population ITER will become a new reference term for big science projects.
.
The ITER project is one of the worlds biggest scientific collaboration.

Professional staff
distribution
 Fission v/s Fusion

Fission
Splitting large nuclei into smaller pieces
Both parent and daughter nuclei are highly
radioactive
Very long half lives
Irradiates both reactor components and the
water used for cooling and heat transfer
Extremely dangerous
Meltdowns
Environmental Hazards
Inputs and Outputs can be used to create
weapons
Very long half lives
Irradiates both reactor components and the
water used for cooling and heat transfer
Outputs can be used to create weapons
Fusion
Hard to achieve
Protons dont like other protons
High temps and magnetic fields are a must
More powerful than fission reactions
Large nuclei have smaller binding energies
than small
Abundance of inputs
Only low levels of radioactive wastes
Mostly just the activated interior panels of the
reaction vessel
Input radioactivity is non-penetrative
Thermonuclear Fusion

Fusion of Deuterium (D) and Tritium (T)

nuclei is the most feasible thermonuclear
reaction

DT mixture should be heated up to 100

Million (5 times as much as t in the
core of the Sun)

DT gas transforms into totally ionized

PLASMA .

D+ and T+ react with formation of a

neutron and Helium nucleus (-particle)
FIG : Fusion reaction
scheme Released energy is equal to 17,6 MeV for a
single reaction act
Conceptual Fusion Reactor
. Fusion Reactor

Lithium Tritium
Lithium blanket

Primary Reprocessing
Fuels Deuterium of gases
Tritium
D+T
plasma
Deuterium

Vacuum Helium + hydrogen

waste gases

Exhaust Gases -- Electricity

Deuterium, tritium grid
hydrogen , helium

Heat exchanger

Turbine Generator

Steam Generator
 Tokomak
Invented in the 50s by Soviet Physicists
Most common form of magnetic confinement reactor
Most studied and promising (currently)
Walls capture the heat and pass it to a heat exchanger
which produces steam to drive a turbine
Utilizes two types of magnetic fields
Toroidal
Causes plasma to travel around torus
Created by external magnets
Poloidal
Causes circular plasma rotation in planar cross
sections
Results from toroidal current flowing through plasma
and is orthogonal to it
ITER
First tokomak fusion reactor that will become productive
 The Core Of ITER
.
Central Solenoid
Nb3Sn, 6 modules

Cryostat
24 m high x 28 m dia.
Toroidal Field Coil
Nb3Sn, 18, wedged Vacuum Vessel
9 sectors

Blanket
440 modules
Poloidal Field Coil
Nb-Ti, 6
Port Plug
~28m heating/current drive, test
blankets
limiters/RH
diagnostics

Divertor
54 cassettes

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 ITER Parameters

Total fusion power 500 MW

Q = fusion power/auxiliary heating power 10
Average neutron wall loading 0.57 MW/m2
Plasma inductive burn time 300 s
Plasma major radius 6.2 m
Plasma minor radius 2.0 m
Plasma current 15 MA
Safety factor @95% flux surface 3.0
Toroidal field @ 6.2 m radius 5.3 T
Plasma volume 837 m3
Plasma surface 678 m2
Installed auxiliary heating/current drive power 73 MW (100 MW)

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 A facility licensed under the French Nuclear Regulatory Authority (ASN)

Main Buildings On The ITER PF Coils w

Site Tokamak

Cryoplant

Tritium
Magnet power
Plant
convertor

Cooling
towers
Remote
Handling

Control Main Office

R F system
Benefits of Fusion

Abundance of input fuels

Deuterium can be extracted from seawater
Tritium can be made in the fusion reactor with lithium
As opposed to fission where uranium is rare and must be mined
High energy density fuel .
Safe
Only small amount of fuel required compared to fission reactors
Most reactors make less radiation than the natural background
Risk of accidental release is non-existent since plasma requires incredibly precise control
Clean
No combustion by products
No weapons grade nuclear by products
Demo
Difficulties
Must overcome the Coulomb barrier
Requires incredibly high temperatures
Simple classical calculations imply temperatures on the order of 10 11 K
Taking into account quantum effects decreases this maxima

Plasma Turbulence
Coherent plasma streams are ideal
In reality plasma flows are incredibly complex requiring equally complex control
mechanisms and systems of stabilization
 ITER SAFETY

Fusion reaction intrinsically safe .

Fuel inventory very small: less than one gram .

Any disturbance will stop the plasma .

Runaway and core-meltdown impossible .

Cooling is not a safety function: if power is lost, heat evacuation happens naturally
THANK YOU !