The Chinese “artificial sun” or the experimental advanced superconducting tokamak (EAST), has accomplished a continuous high-temperature plasma operation for 1,056 seconds in the most recent experiment, the longest time of operation of its kind in the world.
Gong Xianzu is a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Plasma Physics (ASIPP); is in charge of the experiment in Hefei, the capital of Anhui Province in east China; revealed the success on Friday.
According to Xinhua News Agency, China’s ‘artificial sun’ nuclear fusion reactor set a new world record on December 30. It ran at 70 million degrees Celsius for 1,056 seconds — more than 17 minutes.
‘We achieved a plasma temperature of 120 million degrees Celsius for 101 seconds in an experiment in the first half of 2021,’ said Xianzu, as quoted by Xinhua.
The ultimate goal of EAST, which is based at ASIPP in Hefei, is to induce nuclear fusion in the same way as the Sun does, by utilizing deuterium, which is abundant in the water, to give a continual supply of clean energy.
Nuclear fusion power works by colliding heavy hydrogen atoms to generate helium and releasing massive amounts of energy. It is similar to what happens naturally in the cores of stars like our sun.
Fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas are rapidly depleting and endangering the environment. But the raw elements required for the Chinese “artificial sun” are virtually limitless on Earth. As a result, fusion energy is the “ultimate energy” for humanity’s future. (Xinhua)
