ITER-India signed the contract for manufacturing ofITER Cryostat on 17 August 2012 with Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Ltd.

The Cryostat will be a fully welded cylindrical vacuum/pressure chamber with overall dimensions of roughly 29.4 meters in diameter, 29 meters in height and a finished weight of 3850 metric tons. Material of construction is stainless steel with thickness ranging from 50 mm to 250 mm. This will make it the largest vacuum vessel made of stainless steel. It will be evacuated to ultra high vacuum required to keep the superconducting magnets cool at cryogenic temperatures, thus essentially acting as a very large refrigerator. It is an essential part of ITER and acts as a secondary confinement barrier for the reactor. It will take the entire mechanical and seismic loads of the reactor and absorbs all the electromagnetic loads that arise during the operation of the fusion reactor.

All systems that are connected to the core of the ITER device will pass through the cryostat, making it a system with one of the largest number of interfaces.

The Cryostat will be manufactured by the L&T Heavy Engineering division at its Hazira plant, near Surat on the West of India, in the state of Gujarat. It will be dispatched in 54 modules to the ITER site in France, as it cannot be transported in its entire size. Pre-assembly of the cryostat modules will be done in a temporary workshop at the ITER site at Cadarache, in the South of France, to build the cryostat bottom plate, lower and upper cylinders and the top lid. These large sections of the cryostat will be transported to the tokamak pit for their final welding to construct the full Cryostat.

For the cryostat fabrication, advanced technology narrow groove all position Gas Tungsten Arc welding technique will be deployed by L&T at factory and site.

L&T is a USD 12.8 billion technology, engineering, construction, manufacturing and financial services conglomerate, with global operations. It is one of the largest and most respected companies in India's private sector. More than seven decades of a strong, customer-focused approach and the continuous quest for world-class quality have enabled it to attain and sustain leadership in all its major lines of business. L&T has an international presence, with a global spread of offices. A thrust on international business has seen overseas earnings grow significantly. It continues to grow its global footprint, with offices and manufacturing facilities in multiple countries. The company's businesses are supported by a wide marketing and distribution network, and have established a reputation for strong customer support.

Mr. M.V. Kotwal, Member of L&T board and President - L&T Heavy Engineering stated: "L&T is proud to be part of this mammoth global collaborative research to build a greener planet".