"Artificial sun" manufactured and operated by China for about $ 1 trillion Succeeded in maintaining plasma that is five times hotter than the sun!

Abstract image of nuclear fusion

If a fusion reactor, which can be called an "artificial sun," is completed, humankind may be able to obtain infinite clean energy. The Institute of Plasma Physics, such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has decided that the all-superconducting tokamak fusion experimental device (EAST) developed and operated by the institute will sustain a high-temperature plasma of about 700 billion degrees Celsius for 1,056 seconds. Announced success. This duration is the longest in the world for tokamak-type high-temperature plasma. EAST is an experimental device that went into operation in 2006 and is expected to cost more than $ 1 trillion by the end of operation in June 2022. The artificial sun is a device or facility that artificially reproduces nuclear fusion that occurs inside main sequence stars such as the sun. Nuclear fusion is a reaction in which the nuclei of light atoms such as hydrogen are bonded to each other to form heavy nuclei such as helium.

Conceptual diagram showing the fusion reaction of hydrogen inside the sun

Since the fusion reaction involves the generation of energy, research has been conducted to utilize this energy for power generation. Unlike thermal power generation, which burns coal and oil, power generation using nuclear fusion does not emit greenhouse gases, so it is considered to be clean energy. However, it is difficult to artificially imitate the conditions under which nuclear fusion occurs, such as inside the sun, which has a mass of about 330,000 times that of the earth, compared to the central part of the sun, which has a mass of about 15 million degrees. It is said that it requires about 6 times higher temperature. As an artificial reproduction of the environment in which atomic nuclei cause fusion, a fusion reactor "T" of the type called "Tokamak type" designed by Russian (then Soviet Union) scientist Natan Yavlinsky in 1958. -1 "is known. The tokamak type seems to have a mechanism to contain plasma in a donut-shaped fusion reactor with a strong magnetic field. Various fusion experimental devices have been made since the "T-1" developed by Russia, but those that have succeeded in generating more energy than the energy spent to operate the device have appeared. did not.

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