<p>The vessel called the cryostat will be home to the International Thermornuclear Experimental Reactor, the largest and the most advanced facility of its kind being built in Cadarache, France.<br /><br />Scientists and engineers at the Institute of Plasma Research (IPR), Gandhinagar will manufacture this mammoth cryostat in segments at a cost of 100 million euros and ship it to France for being assembled at the site.<br /><br />India is part of a seven nation consortium that is building the fusion reactor designed to produce 500 MW of output electricity with a power input of 50 MW.<br /><br />ITER-India Project, a part of the IPR -- an autonomous unit of the Department of Atomic Energy, will make the 'in-kind' contributions that form India's share to the ITER project.<br />The procurement arrangement for the cryostat was signed recently by ITER-India.<br /><br />"The cryostat is very crucial to the ITER experiment.It houses the fusion reactor in its entirety, including support to all internal systems," Shishir Deshpande, Project Director, ITER-India, told PTI. <br /><br />Deshpande said the cryostat would protect the magnets from unwanted heat loads and help in keeping them in superconducting state.<br /><br />"It also supports the entire mechanical, thermal and seismic load of the reactor and absorbs all the forces coming from fusion and magnetic forces," he said.<br /><br />Welded together from thick stainless steel plates measuring between 40 and 180 millimetres, the cryostat forms the vacuum-tight container surrounding the ITER vacuum vessel and superconducting magnets.<br /><br />It will have an outer diameter of 29 metres, be almost 30 metres tall weigh more than 3,500 tons, Deshpande said.<br /><br />The steel cylinder will have 23 penetrations allowing access inside of the cryostat for maintenance.<br /><br />It will also have over 200 penetrations -- some as large as four metres in size -- providing access to the vacuum vessel for cooling systems, magnet feeders, auxiliary heating, diagnostics, and the removal of blanket and divertor parts.<br /><br />Large bellows are used between the cryostat and the vacuum vessel to allow for thermal contraction and expansion in the structures.<br /><br />Given the huge size of the vessel, it will be fabricated in several pieces, each weighing about 100 tonnes, and transported to France by sea.<br /><br />The supply of components is expected to take place between 2014 and 2017 and onsite fabrication and installation at Cadarache is scheduled to be completed by 2019.</p>
<p>The vessel called the cryostat will be home to the International Thermornuclear Experimental Reactor, the largest and the most advanced facility of its kind being built in Cadarache, France.<br /><br />Scientists and engineers at the Institute of Plasma Research (IPR), Gandhinagar will manufacture this mammoth cryostat in segments at a cost of 100 million euros and ship it to France for being assembled at the site.<br /><br />India is part of a seven nation consortium that is building the fusion reactor designed to produce 500 MW of output electricity with a power input of 50 MW.<br /><br />ITER-India Project, a part of the IPR -- an autonomous unit of the Department of Atomic Energy, will make the 'in-kind' contributions that form India's share to the ITER project.<br />The procurement arrangement for the cryostat was signed recently by ITER-India.<br /><br />"The cryostat is very crucial to the ITER experiment.It houses the fusion reactor in its entirety, including support to all internal systems," Shishir Deshpande, Project Director, ITER-India, told PTI. <br /><br />Deshpande said the cryostat would protect the magnets from unwanted heat loads and help in keeping them in superconducting state.<br /><br />"It also supports the entire mechanical, thermal and seismic load of the reactor and absorbs all the forces coming from fusion and magnetic forces," he said.<br /><br />Welded together from thick stainless steel plates measuring between 40 and 180 millimetres, the cryostat forms the vacuum-tight container surrounding the ITER vacuum vessel and superconducting magnets.<br /><br />It will have an outer diameter of 29 metres, be almost 30 metres tall weigh more than 3,500 tons, Deshpande said.<br /><br />The steel cylinder will have 23 penetrations allowing access inside of the cryostat for maintenance.<br /><br />It will also have over 200 penetrations -- some as large as four metres in size -- providing access to the vacuum vessel for cooling systems, magnet feeders, auxiliary heating, diagnostics, and the removal of blanket and divertor parts.<br /><br />Large bellows are used between the cryostat and the vacuum vessel to allow for thermal contraction and expansion in the structures.<br /><br />Given the huge size of the vessel, it will be fabricated in several pieces, each weighing about 100 tonnes, and transported to France by sea.<br /><br />The supply of components is expected to take place between 2014 and 2017 and onsite fabrication and installation at Cadarache is scheduled to be completed by 2019.</p>