MUMBAI : The 1250 tonne cryostat base manufactured by Larsen and Toubro’s heavy engineering division to be the single largest section of the world’s largest nuclear fusion reactor has been successfully lifted and placed into the reactor building in France, accomplishing a major milestone in the nuclear engineering world, L&T said in a press release.
The assembly tools for the cryostat were delivered during the lockdown by the heavy engineering arm of L&T to ensure the uninterrupted assembly of cryostat in the reactor pit in southern France. The cryostat forms the vacuum-tight container surrounding the reactor vacuum vessel and the superconducting magnets and acts essentially as a very large refrigerator.
The reactor base, the single largest and heaviest Tokamak component of the world's largest stainless-steel, high-vacuum, pressure chamber Cryostat, will eventually contain the rest of the reactor.
On this occasion, Dr Bernard Bigot, Director-General, ITER organization said, “We thank L&T for the timely deliveries, in the current difficult circumstances, of the Cryostat base alignment tool & shims which are critical to install cryostat base, as brilliantly manufactured by L&T since 2015. This installation into the ITER Tokamak building is a significant activity for other downstream activities to achieve the mission for a First Plasma as soon as possible by the end of 2025. This could have been possible, amidst COVID-19 lockdown period, only due to the extraordinary dedicated efforts of L&T team and invaluable support of the Indian government authorities. L&T has always been a trusted partner in meeting the goals of ITER."
L&T has also already delivered the lower cylinder of the cryostat in March 2019 and upper cylinder in March 2020. The final part, the top lid sectors, will be dispatched from Hazira in July 2020. The project scope for L&T Heavy Engineering is divided into three parts, firstly manufacturing and shipping of all subassembly sections from L&T Hazira, Gujarat, then constructing a temporary workshop at the project site in France for assembling the cryostat sections into large assemblies and lastly to integrate the cryostat inside the Tokamak Reactor building.
L&T’s Heavy Engineering business won the prestigious contract in 2012. ITER India, a wing of Department of Atomic Energy, is supervising the Indian participation for this ambitious mega scientific project. India is among the seven countries funding the $20 billion International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) program in Cadarache, France. This is one of the world’s largest research project that seeks to demonstrate the scientific and technical feasibility of fusion power.
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