#121 The Future of Fusion?
In this edition of Technopolitik, Sridhar Krishna writes on Tritium breeding and nuclear fusion. Avinash Shet follows, with a piece on Aero-India and the displays that were showcased this year.
This newsletter is curated by Adya Madhavan.
Technopolitik: Will Fusion run out of gas?
— Sridhar Krishna
2.37 billion people or one in every three humans on this planet do not have adequate nutrition in 2020 according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
If development is the answer to eliminating hunger and eradicating poverty and development leads to increased energy consumption and extreme climate change and destruction of all life on earth, are we in a catch 22 situation?
The global annual consumption of energy is estimated at 580 million Terrajoules which is 5.8 X 1017. kJ. This is expected to grow by over 30% by 2040. With 83% of this energy usage coming from fossil fuels, it is well established that we are well on our way to destroy our planet as we know it.
In contrast, the Sun produces 3.78 x 1023. kJ every second and it does so through nuclear fusion where hydrogen atoms under high temperature and pressure get combined to form Helium. The resultant is a 0.7% loss of mass. We all know E= mc2 where E is the energy, m is the change in mass and c is the speed of light. When 600 million tonnes of hydrogen is combined to form helium, the result is this incredible amount of energy.
Scientists have been trying to recreate this reaction to generate sustainable green energy since Arthur Edington wrote his famous paper, “The internal constitution of stars” in 1920 where he described how the stars use nuclear fusion to generate energy. Yet, here we are 105 years later and still meeting 83% of our energy requirements through fossil fuel because creating nuclear fusion on earth with net energy gain has not been easy.
The Universe is made up of 75% Hydrogen but on Earth it is not that abundant while not exactly scarce either. It is found in water, in organic compounds and in many other molecular forms. The most common hydrogen isotope is Protium which contains one proton and no neutrons but the hydrogen isotopes being used for nuclear fusion in the research laboratories across the world are deuterium with one proton and one neutron and tritium with one proton and two neutrons. While deuterium is available in plenty naturally in sea water, very small quantities of tritium are naturally occurring on earth. Tritium unlike deuterium is radioactive but with a short half-life of 12.32 years.
Tritium shortages could mean that nuclear fusion on earth cannot scale unless we generate Tritium through other means. One such method is tritium breeding in the fusion reactor by using a Lithium blanket. When neutrons bombard the lithium, they create tritium and helium. This tritium is then recovered from the blanket and sent back as fuel into the plasma.
Different countries are experimenting with tritium breeding with slightly different approaches. Europe is using water cooled lithium lead, Japan is using water cooled ceramics breeder while China is using helium cooled ceramics breeder and Korea along with Europe is experimenting with helium cooled ceramic pebbles.
ITER expects to through its test blanket module program to test the efficiency of the different methods and also identify the right coolant for the future when the power will be converted to electricity.
According to ITER only the CANDU type heavy water fission reactors developed by Canada in 1950-60s and adopted by countries like India generate Tritium as a by-product and these plants in total produce around 20 kg of tritium a year. An industrial scale fusion plant will require an average of 70kg of tritium for every Gigawatt of thermal power and if nuclear fusion is to become a significant source of energy for the world, then there will be thousands of such plants.
It is therefore critical to track the progress of the Tritium breeding efforts to make sure that after a 100 years of effort to make fusion a reality, we just run out of tritium and abandon this quest for clean, green and limitless energy!
Technopolitik: India's Aero Engine Industry Display at Aero India 2025
— Avinash Shet
This year at Aero India, we witnessed the global presence of renowned aircraft engine manufacturers. The event saw participation from leading manufacturers like General Electric (GE) and Pratt and Whitney (PW) from the United States, Safran from France, Rolls Royce from the United Kingdom and United Engine Corporation (UEC) from Russia.
UEC presented its fifth-generation engine as a potential powerplant for India’s upcoming fifth-generation fighter aircraft, Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) and Tejas Mark-II fighter aircraft. Rolls Royce and Safran expressed their willingness to co-develop the engine for AMCA with an Indian entity. Despite its supply chain challenges delivering its GE-404 engines, General Electric stepped forward to offer its GE-414 engines for Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas Mark-II and AMCA.
The participation of international engine manufacturers underscores India’s current challenges in developing an indigenous engine. The Indigenous development of the aero engine is carried out by the Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE), a Defence R&D Organisation (DRDO). Named Kaveri, the indigenous engine was initially developed as a powerplant for LCA Tejas aircraft and has yet to achieve the preferred required performance parameters. Currently, GE-404 has replaced the Kaveri engine to power Tejas aircraft. However, GE is struggling to supply the engine to HAL in a timely manner.
Given the dynamic nature of the global geopolitical landscape, it is crucial for India to develop in-house design and manufacturing capabilities. Aero India 2025 showcased the domestic manufacturing capability.
One of the standout aspects of this year’s event was the display of engine components manufacturing, such as gas turbine fans and compressor blades, engine casing, and Blisk. Tata Advance System Limited (TASL), Godrej Aerospace, and Bharat Forge are the notable major engine component manufacturing companies that showcase their products.
TASL has displayed engine casing for various sections of aero engines. They manufacture components for companies like Rolls-Royce, Pratt and Whitney, and CFM (a joint company between GE Aerospace and Safran). TASL manufactures high-precision components, including turbine, compressor, and diffuser casing, low-pressure turbine shaft, and tube assemblies.
Godrej Aerospace has built its manufacturing capability to cater for the domestic requirement of GTRE to develop the Kaveri engine. They have pioneered the manufacturing of fans, intermediate casings, compressors, turbines, exhaust cones, bypass ducts, and jet pipes. They export their products to OEMs like Honeywell, GE, Rolls Royce, and Safran. Bharat Forge manufactures fully machined Titanium fan blades and shafts for various engine OEMs. They also produce shafts and discs for HAL’s turboshaft engine.
While established manufacturers continue to grow, lesser-known aspiring companies are making remarkable contributions. Azad Engineering manufactures fan and compressor blades for ground and aircraft-based gas turbine engines. They supply aero-engine components to GE and Honeywell, as well as components for ground-based engines for Siemens Energy, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and MAN Energy. Another player, Unimech Aerospace, manufactures high-precision components. In terms of aero-engines, they develop aero-engine tooling solutions.
These developments showcase that India might have missed the manufacturing bus at the end of the last century, but the rapid advancement shows the ecosystem is catching up. The display of such companies in Aero India boosts the aspiring high precision domain in the aerospace industry, especially the aero-engine technology. A robust manufacturing base will drive advancements in engine design, development, and testing capabilities for domestic companies. If this momentum continues, by Aero India 2047, India could have multiple OEMs capable of designing, developing, manufacturing and testing state-of-the-art aero engines.