China's “artificial sun,” or the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) reactor in the eastern Chinese city of Hefei created and sustained plasma for 403 seconds. This is a major step toward clean and limitless nuclear fusion energy source.
China’s “artificial sun” established a global record by creating and keeping very hot, highly contained plasma for about seven minutes.
The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) in the eastern Chinese city of Hefei created and sustained plasma for 403 seconds, shattering its previous record of 101 seconds set in 2017 and marking another important step towards the development of high-efficiency, low-cost thermonuclear fusion reactors.
“The main significance of this new breakthrough lies in its ‘high-confinement mode,’ which significantly increases the temperature and density of the plasma,” said Song Yuntao, head of the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Plasma Physics, which created EAST.
According to Xinhua, the effort “lays a solid foundation for improving the technical and economic feasibility of fusion reactors.”
Nuclear fusion, the same mechanism that our sun uses to create light and heat, is viewed as a safe, clean, and nearly infinite energy source.
Scientists have been working for decades to create “artificial suns” by heating hydrogen atoms to above 100 million degrees Celsius (180 million degrees Fahrenheit) and confining them long enough for them to combine into heavier atoms, unleashing huge energy in the process.
EAST, which began operations in 2006, is one of the most promising routes to controlled nuclear fusion. It carried out over 120,000 tests to attain the most recent milestone.
“The record is also a big step forward for our team in terms of fundamental physics research, fusion engineering, and project operation and maintenance,” Song said.
Song stated that his team had worked day and night for a week to complete the record-breaking operation, and that “tonight would be another sleepless night for celebration”.
EAST is the world’s first superconducting tokamak, a machine that confines super-hot plasma in a doughnut-shaped chamber and forces it to merge over time using intense magnetic fields. It functions as a “mini sun” by utilising cutting-edge technology and millions of pieces.
It has set multiple records, including holding plasma at almost 70 million degrees Celsius for over 18 minutes in 2021 using a different operation mode from the one used in Wednesday’s trial.
China is also a member of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, which is building the world’s biggest fusion reactor in France.
According to Xinhua, China has finalised the design of its next-generation artificial sun, known as the China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR), which seeks to be the world’s first fusion demonstration reactor.
CFETR, when finished around 2035, will generate large amounts of heat with a peak power output of up to 2 gigatonnes.
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