India formally designates fusion as a strategic energy technology under DAE
Department of Atomic Energy publishes ₹17,500-crore fusion roadmap centered on SST-2 and a national high-temperature superconductor program.
India's Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) formally classified fusion as a strategic energy technology and released a ₹17,500-crore (roughly $2.1 billion USD) decade-long fusion roadmap, with primary funding flowing to the Institute for Plasma Research (IPR) in Gandhinagar and a new public-private high-temperature superconductor consortium.
The roadmap re-prioritizes the SST-2 superconducting tokamak — a successor to the operational SST-1 — and accelerates Indian participation in the ITER Test Blanket Module program. India's existing ITER contributions, including the cryostat (fabricated by Larsen & Toubro) and the cryolines, have positioned the country's industrial base as one of ITER's most reliable suppliers.
Secretary of the DAE, Dr. Ajit Kumar Mohanty, said the program will also fund three small fusion startups under a new private-sector mechanism modeled loosely on the U.S. DOE Milestone Program. India joins the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Japan, Germany, and South Korea as the seventh national jurisdiction with an explicit fusion strategy.
Primary sources
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