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India’s ‘Artificial Sun’

India’s ‘Artificial Sun’: A Major Step Towards Clean Fusion Energy

India has taken an important step in the global race to develop nuclear fusion energy, often described as the technology behind an “artificial Sun.” Scientists at the Institute for Plasma Research (IPR), Gandhinagar, have strengthened India’s experimental fusion programme with a powerful new gyrotron system installed on the SST-1 tokamak. 

The development is significant because nuclear fusion could potentially provide a cleaner and highly powerful source of energy in the future.

What is India’s Artificial Sun?

The term “artificial Sun” does not mean that scientists have created a real Sun on Earth. Instead, it refers to efforts to recreate the nuclear fusion process that powers the Sun under controlled laboratory conditions.

India’s SST-1 (Steady State Superconducting Tokamak) is an experimental fusion machine designed to study extremely hot plasma and understand how it can be controlled for long periods.

A tokamak has a doughnut-like structure. Inside it, scientists create plasma, an extremely hot and electrically charged state of matter. Powerful magnetic fields are then used to confine the plasma so that it does not touch the walls of the machine.

What is the New Gyrotron?

The latest development involves an 82.6 GHz, 400 kW gyrotron. A gyrotron is a specialised device that generates high-frequency microwave energy. This energy is injected into the plasma to heat and sustain it.

The new system is an important upgrade over the earlier 42 GHz system. It can help researchers maintain extremely hot plasma for longer periods and study its stability more effectively.

Indian fusion experiments have already achieved plasma temperatures exceeding 200 million degrees Celsius, which is around 20 times hotter than the core of the Sun. However, reaching such temperatures is only one part of the challenge. The bigger challenge is to keep the plasma stable and confined for a sufficiently long time.

Why is Nuclear Fusion Important?

In conventional nuclear fission, heavy atoms are split to release energy. Fusion works differently: light atomic nuclei are combined under extreme conditions, releasing enormous amounts of energy.

Fusion is considered a promising clean-energy option because its potential fuel resources are abundant and it could produce much less long-lived radioactive waste than conventional nuclear fission. However, commercial fusion power is still a major scientific and engineering challenge.

For India, progress in fusion research is important for energy security, advanced science, technological self-reliance and long-term clean-energy goals. India is also contributing to the international ITER fusion programme.

UPSC Relevance

This topic is important for UPSC and other State PCS examinations under Science & Technology, Nuclear Energy, Energy Security, Environment and India’s indigenous technological development.

The key terms to remember are nuclear fusion, plasma, tokamak, SST-1, gyrotron, magnetic confinement and Institute for Plasma Research.

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