India will participate in upper port plug manufacturing

23 Jul 2013 - Dilshad Sulaiman, ITER India
ITER India head Shishir Deshpande (in white) handing over the MoU to the Port Plug Project team on 22 July 2013. With Shishir, from right to left, is Siddharth Kumar (Technical Responsible Officer), Vinay Kumar (Project Manager, Diagnostics), Shrishail Padasalagi (Head, Design Office & Member Diagnostics) and Dilshad Sulaiman (Project Office Responsible Officer).
ITER-India and the ITER Organization signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the common manufacture of port plugs on 16 July 2013 during the Unique ITER Team week at ITER. This MoU enables the participation of India in the common manufacture of the upper port plug that includes the generic upper port plug (GUPP) and applicable customizations. ITER-India is responsible for providing upper port No. 9 integration components, a package that includes upper port plug No. 9 itself.
 
The main functions of the upper port plug are to hold the diagnostics in position, shield diagnostics from neutron streaming and act as the first closing boundary at the vacuum vessel port flange. This upper port plug will be a stainless steel structure of nearly 6 metres in length and a little more than 1 metre in width and height, weighing approximately 25 tonnes.