Strategy for the Indian DEMO design

The Indian scenario for the development of DEMO has been presented. The advantage of joining ITER and its consequences on the pace of fusion technology development in the country has been discussed. The strategy for the DEMO development is to build prototypes for proving the required technologies and to perform their integrated tests in an intermediate size tokamak steady state superconducting tokamak-2 (SST-2) [R0 = 4.4 m, Q = 5] with modest fusion power. This will allow an experience with D-T cycle apart from high-power long-pulse operation. A crucial step will be offered by SST-2 for the human resource development for future. It will also evolve remote handling technology and several test facilities. Development of suitable structural materials and fusion-blankets will be major activities in parallel, which are receiving a boost due to India's participation in the test blanket module activity. The Indian DEMO machine will have R0 = 7.7 and Q = 30 and will share the facilities setup for SST-2. At present, design and modeling activities are underway for both the machines. From a programmatic point of view, a networked research activity is being kick-started by initiating a National Fusion Program.