BIT, Mesra, vice-chancellor P.K. Barhai (left) felicitates Malaviya National Institute of Technology director R.P. Dahiya during the meet in Ranchi on Monday. Picture by Hardeep Singh

Ranchi, Dec. 15: The dream of clean and danger-free nuclear energy through nuclear fusion would become a reality in the country only by 2050.

For, the commercial reactor that would produce energy by nuclear fusion can come up by this time around. The Union department of science and technology is now on lookout for young brains who would be groomed as scientists to take forward the fusion programme, which is at a nascent stage at present.

“Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) is spearheading a fusion programme with an aim to develop technology to set up a nuclear fusion power plant. However, the country can have its first commercial fusion reactor only by 2050,” said A.K. Das, the head of laser and plasma technology division at BARC in Mumbai.

On the sidelines of a meet on plasma technology at BIT, Mesra, Das told The Telegraph about the national fusion programme. As many as 35 young brains from various technology institutes, including IITs, are taking part at the meet, which began today and will continue till December 27. Funded by the Centre’s department of science and technology, the purpose of the meet is to select interested and talented youngsters who would be specially trained to take forward the nuclear fusion programme.

At present, the country may have programme to set up nuclear fissure power plants, but these always have the danger of radioactive effect, which can be alive for as many as 10,000 years. On the contrary, in the power plant with fusion technology, the intensity of radioactivity would be next to nil. Scientists think that in the coming decades, nuclear energy through fusion would be the best source of safe and clean energy for the world.

Das said the selected youngsters would be trained at least for 10 years on plasma technology and other related disciplines, which are needed for setting up nuclear fusion power plant.

When the nuclei of light atoms like hydrogen come together at very high temperatures, they fuse and this produces enormous amounts of energy. In the core of the sun or a star, the huge gravitational pressure allows this to happen at temperatures of around 10 million degrees Celsius. The scientists are busy developing technology so that this process could be replicated on earth, thereby produced clean and safe energy.

Das also said that the joint venture to develop fusion reactor — International Thermal Experimental Reactor (ITER) being developed in France — would take at least another 15 years. India is part of the seven-member team that includes China, EU, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the US. ITER is an experimental reactor, which would reproduce the physical reaction — fusion — that occurs in the sun and stars.