China strikes one step nearer to near-limitless vitality with ‘synthetic solar’ breakthrough
A nuclear reactor in China, dubbed an ‘artificial sun’, has made a breakthrough in nuclear fusion – the new record is an essential step forwards to near-limitless energy
A nuclear reactor in China has been dubbed an ‘artificial sun’ and a massive breakthrough is bringing humanity closer to near-limitless energy.
Nuclear fusion reactors are nicknamed “artificial suns” because of their ability to generate nuclear energy in a similar fashion to the sun – using nuclear fusion. However, the sun is under many times more pressure than here on Earth so scientists get around this by using temperatures that are many times hotter than the sun to start their reactions.
The reactor behind China’s nuclear power breakthrough is named the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak, or just EAST for short. EAST creates power by heating up plasma that it traps in a doughnut shaped reactor chamber called the tokamak. Like all nuclear fusion reactors works by fusing two light atoms into a single heavy atom.
On January 20th EAST set a new record of 1066 seconds of a continuous nuclear reaction, the record is considered an essential step forwards towards near-limitless clean energy and improved greatly upon the previous world record of 403 seconds – also set by EAST in 2023.
The new record is progress towards the reactor maintaining long and confined plasma loops that are needed to generate electricity. Reactors like EAST have never been able to achieve their own ignition – which is the point where nuclear fusion reactors can sustain their own reactions independently.
Song Yuntao, director of the Institute of Plasma Physicians, responsible for the fusion project told Chinese state media: “A fusion device must achieve stable operation at high efficiency for thousands of seconds to enable the self-sustaining circulation of plasma, which is critical for the continuous power generation of future fusion plants,”
Director Song also added: “We hope to expand international collaboration via EAST and bring fusion energy into practical use for humanity.”
Despite these massive steps in progressive nuclear energy, scientists are wary that the technology is not progressing fast enough to combat the imminent climate change crisis.
Scientists believe that we should have the ability to create green power using nuclear fusion within decades, however it could take much longer.
