Chinese scientists have achieved a temperature five times hotter than the sun with their $1 trillion fusion reactor dubbed "artificial sun."

pixabay.com

The experimental fusion reactor may be a key to unlocking virtually infinite clean energy resources.

For more than 17 minutes, China's "artificial sun" superheated a plasma loop to temperatures five times hotter than the sun, according to official media.

As the Xinhua News Agency reported, the experimental advanced superconducting tokamak nuclear fusion reactor maintained a temperature of 158 million degrees Fahrenheit (70 million degrees Celsius). Scientists have taken a small but critical step toward creating a near-limitless supply of sustainable energy.

The Tore Supra tokamak in France set the previous record in 2003 when plasma in a coiling loop stayed at identical temperatures for 390 seconds. The Chinese experimental nuclear fusion reactor shattered that record. For the second time in May 2021, EAST broke a record by running for 101 seconds at an incredible 216 million FPS (120 million C). On the other hand, the sun's center reaches temperatures of 27 million degrees Fahrenheit (15 million C).

Gong Xianzu, a researcher at the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that "the recent operation laid a solid scientific and experimental foundation toward the functioning of a fusion reactor."

Nuclear fusion—the process by which stars burn—has been a goal of scientists for more than 70 years. Main-sequence stars can transform materials into light and heat without releasing greenhouse gases or long-lasting radioactive waste by fusing hydrogen atoms to generate helium at extremely high pressures and temperatures.

On the other hand, the conditions found within the cores of stars are extremely difficult to duplicate on Earth. Plasma (one of the four states of matter consisting of positive ions and negatively-charged free electrons) is heated to an extremely high temperature in a tokamak reactor chamber before being trapped by enormous magnetic fields. This is how most fusion reactors work.

On the other hand, nuclear fusion has been a long and arduous process that requires a great deal of patience. There has never been an experimental reactor that can produce more energy than it consumes, despite the 1958 invention of the first tokamak by Soviet scientist Natan Yavlinsky.

As one of the most difficult challenges, dealing with hot enough plasma to fuse has been an issue. Because they must function at considerably lower pressures than where fusion naturally occurs inside the cores of stars, fusion reactors must run at extremely high temperatures – several times hotter than the sun. Making plasma hotter than the sun is simple; it is more difficult to keep it contained enough that it does not burn through the reactor walls (either using lasers or magnetic fields) without compromising the fusion process.

EAST is being used to test technologies for a much larger fusion project — the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) — now built in Marseille, France, at more than $1 trillion.

Because it's a joint effort involving 35 countries, including every EU member state, the UK, China, India, and The United States (among others), ITER has the world's most powerful magnet, which means it can generate a magnetic field 280,000 times stronger than that of the Earth's. Future research into capturing star power on Earth could benefit greatly from the fusion reactor, which is projected to be operational by 2025.

China is pursuing more nuclear fusion programs — inertial confinement fusion experiments are being carried out, and a new tokamak will be completed in China by the early 2030s.

There are other plans in the United States and the United Kingdom to begin commercial fusion power generation as early as 2025 or 2030, respectively.

Reference : https://www.livescience.com/chinas-1-trillion-artificial-sun-fusion-reactor-just-got-five-times-hotter-than-the-sun

Image source : https://pixabay.com/id/photos/cina-xinjiang-matahari-langit-biru-680717/

How hot does a fusion reactor get?

Has there been a successful fusion reactor?

How close are we to making fusion power?

Can China's artificial sun explode?

How hot did Chernobyl get?

Is Cold Fusion theoretically possible?