L&T dispatches first consignment of ITER cryostat

Engineering firm Larsen and Toubro (L&T) today said it has shipped its first consignment of cryostat, part of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) fusion reactor facility being developed at Cadarache in France. "L&T Heavy Engineering has flagged off its first consignment of cryostat, part of ITER fusion reactor facility being built at Cadarache in south of France," the company said in a statement. This is the first heavy exceptional load consignment of ITER program being dispatched to France with a total consignment weight of 460 MT.

When complete, ITER will be the world's largest experimental facility to demonstrate the scientific and technical feasibility of fusion power, it said. An international collaborative project, ITER involves 'in-kind' contributions from seven member entities like European Union, India, China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and USA. ITER India, which is a part of the Institute for Plasma Research (a DAE unit) located at Gandhinagar, Gujarat, is the nodal agency responsible for the Indian portion of the project, which awarded L&T the contract for manufacturing the Cryostat.

The major forgings for the cryostat segment were indigenously made and supplied by L&T Special Steel and Heavy Forgings (LTSSHF) joint venture with NPCIL. Manufacturing of the Cryostat is planned in three phases. In view of the very large dimensions involved, the cryostat is being fabricated in different segments at L&T's Hazira facility in the first phase and is to be dispatched in 50 different modules to France.

This consignment marks the dispatch of the first module. In the second phase, module pre-assembly will be done at site workshop at Cadarache, already constructed by L&T and handed over to ITER in November 2014. The third phase involves final assembly of the cryostat where the installation will be done at the Tokomak Reactor Hall.