Question : International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor

(a) the details of the funds that have been allocated towards the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project during the last five years;

(b) whether it is a fact that India has been reneging and defaulted on the ''in-cash’ contribution towards the project since 2017 and if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor;

(c) whether it is also a fact that India has deployed only 25 staff members for the project instead of deploying the sanctioned 100 people thus losing out on gaining vital experience;

(d) if so, the details thereof along with the reasons for not changing its policy for the project and not deploying the engineers from reputed public and private institutions other than staff of Department of Atomic Energy for the project; and

(e) whether India has considered building a similar project on Indian soil and if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?

THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR PERSONNEL, PUBLIC GRIEVANCES AND PENSIONS AND PRIME MINISTER’S OFFICE (DR. JITENDRA SINGH):
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a) Since 2017 (i.e., during last five years), ITER-India has been allocated a total of Rs. 2683.9 crores. The details for year-wise sanction are as follows:-

FY of sanction 2017-18 2018-19 2019-20 2020-21 2021-22
Grant allocated
(Rs. in crores) 430.6 442.8 624.5 566.0 620.0


b) The details of payments made towards ‘in-cash’ contribution are as below:

FY of Payment 2017-18 2018-19 2019-20 2020-21 2021-22
Payment Made
(Rs. in crores) - 97.09 46.46 181.25 245.11
ITER is a consortium of 7 nations and all the nations give contributions based on the demands made by ITER organization and individual Government considerations. The payment made by each country is discussed during ITER Council Meetings.

c) & d) Staff working at ITER site includes, (i) ITER Organization (IO) regular staff positions, (ii) ITER Project Associate (IPA), and (iii) staff working on specific contractual tasks from industry/ institutes. It may be recalled that all ITER regular positions are through contracts running upto 5 years. With special encouragement from the Department of Atomic Energy, Indian industries including private sector industries have been deputing staff to ITER now. As on date, approx. 150 Indian nationals, both from Private and Public sectors, are working in ITER as ITER Project Associates, which is about 60% of total 250 IPAs. In addition, about 22 Indians are working as regular staff, and some more are in the remaining category. Altogether, about 180 Indians are working at ITER site. There is no concept of ‘sanctioned strength’ in the context of ITER staff.

e) Indian institutions are involved in understanding the design complexities of a large size fusion reactor. Subsequent to initiation of achieving fusion plasma in ITER, a suitable decision shall be taken to setup a reactor in future depending upon the experience gained at ITER.

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