China's top-notch nuclear fusion reactor sets new record

China's nuclear fusion reactor, dubbed the "artificial sun," has broken its own record for the preservation of super-hot plasma. This brought humanity closer to almost unlimited clean energy.

The fusion reactor's Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) maintained a stable, highly closed cycle of plasma, the high-energy fourth state of matter, for 1,066 seconds. This is more than double its previous best of 403 seconds, LiveScience reports.

According to scientists, nuclear fusion reactors are called "artificial suns" because they generate energy similar to the sun - by fusing two light atoms into one heavy atom using heat and pressure.

As the Sun has much higher pressure than Earth's reactors, scientists compensate for this by using temperatures that are many times higher than the Sun's, experts say.

Nuclear fusion is known to offer the potential for an almost unlimited source of energy without greenhouse gas emissions or large amounts of nuclear waste. However, although scientists have been working on this technology for more than 70 years, it is not progressing fast enough to become a practical solution to the climate crisis.

Researchers expect that humanity will have fusion within the next decade, but it may take much longer.

According to the scientists, the new EAST record will not immediately be the beginning of what is called the "Holy Grail" of clean electricity, but it is a step towards a possible future when fusion power plants will produce electricity.

Experts explain that EAST is a magnetically confined reactor, or tokamak, designed to burn plasma continuously for a long time.

Reactors like this one have never achieved ignition, which is the point at which nuclear fusion creates its own energy and sustains its own reaction. Still, the new record is a step toward sustaining the long, confined plasma loops that future reactors will need to generate electricity, scientists hope.

"magnetic confinement reactorA 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," said Song Yuntao, director of the Institute of Plasma Physics.

EAST is one of several nuclear fusion reactors around the world, but currently they all consume much more energy than they produce, experts say.

It is known that China is part of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) program, which involves dozens of countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, and Russia.

Interestingly, the ITER reactor, which contains the world's most powerful magnet, is being built in the south of France, but it will not start operating until 2039. ITER will be an experimental tool designed to create sustainable fusion for research purposes. However, it may still pave the way for fusion power plants.

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