Paris: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday visited the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) facility, one of the most ambitious fusion energy projects in the world, in Cadarache in France.

This was the first visit by any Head of State or Head of Government to the ITER, the Prime Minister’s Office said. The two leaders were welcomed by the Director General of ITER.

“During the visit, the leaders appreciated the progress of the ITER, including the assembly of the world’s largest tokamak, where ultimately 500 MW of fusion power will be produced by creating, containing and controlling burning plasm,” the PMO said in a statement.

The leaders also appreciated the dedication of the ITER engineers and scientists working on the project.

“India is among the seven ITER members contributing to the project over the last two decades. Around 200 Indian scientists and associates, as well as notable industry players such as L&T, Inox India, TCS, TCE, HCL Technologies among others are engaged in the ITER project,” it added.

According to the ITER website, multiple nations are collaborating to “build the world’s largest tokamak, a magnetic fusion device that has been designed to prove the feasibility of fusion as a large-scale and carbon-free source of energy based on the same principle that powers our Sun and stars”.

The experimental campaign that will be carried out at the ITER is crucial to advancing fusion science and preparing the way for the fusion power plants of tomorrow, the ITER says.

“Thousands of engineers and scientists have contributed to the design of the ITER since the idea for an international joint experiment in fusion was first launched in 1985. The ITER members — China, the European Union, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and the United States — are now engaged in a decades-long collaboration to build and operate the ITER experimental device, and together bring fusion to the point where a demonstration fusion reactor can be designed,” as per the website.

The primary objective of the ITER is the “investigation and demonstration of burning plasmas — plasmas in which the energy of the helium nuclei produced by the fusion reactions is enough to maintain the temperature of the plasma, thereby reducing or eliminating the need for external heating”, the website says.

“The ITER will also test the availability and integration of technologies essential for a fusion reactor (such as superconducting magnets, remote maintenance, and systems to exhaust power from the plasma) and the validity of tritium breeding module concepts that would lead in a future reactor to tritium self-sufficiency,” the ITER website added.