China's “artificial Sun” throws shade at past fusion records
The new world record marks a “notable breakthrough” in the race to provide humanity with clean and plentiful fusion energy.
Image by Getty Images.
The new world record marks a “notable breakthrough” in the race to provide humanity with clean and plentiful fusion energy, China’s Institute of Plasma Physics (ASIPP) claims.
Scientists behind the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) claim to have maintained “steady-state high-confinement plasma” for nearly 18 minutes, more than doubling EAST’s record achieved in 2023.
In layman’s terms, the achievement means EAST’s operators succeeded in keeping a miniature star controlled and contained for a record period of time. Scientists all over the globe are racing to unlock fusion energy, the same process that’s powering our Sun, to unlock nearly limitless energy.
Fusion happens when atoms are merged together, releasing awesome amounts of energy. Inside our Sun, fusion happens after the Sun's massive gravity helps it to crush the atoms together. Meanwhile, humans are trying to simulate the process by superheating atoms to temperatures hotter than the Sun.
"A fusion device must achieve stable operation at high efficiency for thousands of seconds to enable the self-sustaining circulation of plasma, which is essential for the continuous power generation of future fusion plants," Song Yuntao, ASIPP director and vice president of Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS), said.
Keeping atoms hotter than the sun and maintaining long-term operation has been a monumental task for several decades now, spawning a cliché that “fusion energy is always just a decade away.”
However, the recent EAST achievement, as well as the US National Ignition Facility’s (NIF) breakthrough, which generates more energy than was used to create it, shows that the scientific community is inching forward.
Launched in 2006, EAST is a doughnut-shaped experimental fusion energy reactor, also known as a tokamak. It uses powerful magnetic fields to confine and superheat plasma. EAST is part of ITER, an international nuclear fusion research and engineering megaproject built in Southern France.
