Prelims: Current events of national and international importance | Science & Technology
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India’s indigenous nuclear fusion research reached a key milestone with the installation of Steady State Superconducting Tokamak-1 (SST-1) at the Institute for Plasma Research (IPR) in Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
India’s ‘Artificial Sun’
- Not an Actual Sun - It refers to ground-based experimental nuclear fusion reactors, specifically tokamaks, designed to replicate the core energy-generation process of the Sun.
- Core Mechanism - Unlike nuclear fission (splitting heavy atoms like Uranium), fusion forces light atomic nuclei (typically isotopes of hydrogen - Deuterium and Tritium) together under extreme temperature and pressure to form Helium, releasing massive clean energy.
- Temperature Requirement - Reaching fusion conditions requires heating hydrogen gas into a superheated ionized state called plasma.
- In India's experiments, plasma temperatures have exceeded 200 million°C (over 10 times hotter than the core of the Sun).
Key Highlights of the SST-1 Upgrade
- Role of the Gyrotron - A gyrotron is a high-power vacuum tube device that generates high-frequency microwave energy.
- It provides Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating (ECRH) to heat and sustain plasma.
- Upgraded Performance- Replaces older 42 GHz systems.
- Thus, enhancing India’s capacity to heat, maintain stability, and extend the confinement time of ultra-hot plasma without touching the reactor walls.
- Magnetic Confinement- Utilizes strong superconducting magnets to trap the plasma inside a donut-shaped chamber (torus).
India’s Indigenous Tokamaks
- ADITYA / ADITYA-U- India's first medium-sized conventional air-core tokamak with copper coils, used for basic plasma physics research.
- SST-1 (Steady State Superconducting Tokamak)- India's first superconducting tokamak designed for long-duration, steady-state plasma operation.
Institute for Plasma Research (IPR) Located in Gandhinagar (Gujarat), it is an autonomous R&D institute under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) leading domestic fusion research.
Reference
News 18 | India’s 'Artificial Sun' Project
