US support India's application to join Energy Reactor project
NEW DELHI, 5 July: Cabinet has given its support to Indian participation in the International Thermonuclear Energy Reactor (ITER) project which will be started with an estimated cost of Rs 2,500 crore. This deal will be important for India. It is the seventh member in the elite group. The other members are China, European Union (EU), Japan, South Korea, Russia and US.
US have given support to India's application to join the International Thermonuclear Energy Reactor project, citing India's successful entry as fulfillment of one of its key responsibilities under the July 18 civilian nuclear energy agreement.
With the acceptance in the global nuclear energy project India has become a responsible nuclear state with advance nuclear technology, including in the field of fusion research.
The grand multi-billion dollar project is aimed at demonstrating the scientific and technological feasibility of controlled nuclear fusion as a future source of energy.
EU will contribute half of the project cost while the rest will be divided evenly among the other six partners. The cost of the project is Rs 25,000 crore, and the reactor will be completed in 10 years.
Even though the US had supported India for ITER, opposition to India's membership came from Japan and South Korea, even from some of the member countries of EU. It took some diplomatic handling to get the EU, under presidency of the UK, to agree to India's participation.
India believes that this is a noteworthy step forward in prop up of its case that it is a responsible nuclear power. The objective of the project is to see whether it is possible to get the principle of fusion to work in a realistic way. The fusion process does not add to greenhouse gases, and therefore is naturally non-polluting.
India had expressed its interest in participating in the project as a full partner on the basis of its advanced scientific and technological base, its established record of R&D in fusion as well as from the viewpoint of a country with massive energy requirements
By Saniya Mehra
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