China recently developed a device named HL-2M Tokamak for the fusion reactor based at the Southwestern Institute of Physics (SWIP) in Chengdu City.
According to state media Xinhua, it broke the world records after carrying a nuclear reaction at 70 million degrees Celsius (343 million Kelvin) for more than 17 minutes in Chengdu.
This device is not a sun but EAST (Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak), a donut-shaped reactor chamber with heated plasma enclosed with a strong magnetic field.
China’s attempt has generated limitless sustainable energy in cost-effective ways for many years.
Is the Sun made of plasma?
Yes, the Sun is made of natural plasma consisting mainly of hydrogen and helium. The plasma is a mixture of ionized gas, ions or electrons, and neutral atoms, a distinct state of matter containing an incredible amount of electrically charged particles. The natural plasma does not break down or react rapidly but is boiling.
Does the Sun use Fission or Fusion Reaction?
The Sun constantly uses fusion reactions, often called thermonuclear reactions, because they appear only at a very high temperature.
The fusion reaction occurring in the Sun is described as three reactions. i) Protium and deuterium combine into a He-3 isotope. ii) Two He-3 isotopes combine to give the He-4 isotope plus two protiums. iii) Two protiums combine to give deuterium plus a positron.
What is Hotter Than the Sun?
The Sun is a 1.5-kilometer ball of plasma. The nuclear fusion reaction heats it, and the interior temperature reaches about 15 million degrees Celsius. Recent research reveals that China’s Artificial Sun, EAST (Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak), is hotter than the Sun.
This donut-shaped device carried a nuclear reaction at 70 million degrees Celsius (343 million Kelvin) for more than 17 minutes, which is more than the Sun.
How to Make Artificial Suns?
In making an Artificial Sun, the two small nuclei fuse to form a larger, more stable nucleus, and an appreciable amount of thermal energy is released. The reaction involved in the ‘Artificial Sun’ generation is the Nuclear Fusion Reaction. In contrast to nuclear fission, atomic fusion combines small nuclei into larger ones, largely exempt from waste disposal.
Nuclear fusion is the same process that occurs mainly in the Sun. It is the basis for research into harnessing the fusion reaction for energy yields. However, it is too costly to deal with as we need a very high temperature to bring about this process.
Everything We Know About China’s Artificial Sun
Recently, China completed the test of the Nuclear Fusion Reactor and attempted to make an ‘Artificial Sun’ that got five times more scorching than the Sun.
The Chinese Nuclear Fusion Reactor broke the record set by France’s Tore Supra tokamak in 2003 when a plasma loop was confined to the same temperature for 6 minutes and 30 seconds.
The purpose of this ‘sun’ is not to supply light radiation but an enormous amount of clean energy that researchers hope to use to generate electricity in environmentally friendly ways.
Nuclear scientists have struggled to utilize the nuclear fusion reaction for more or less 70 years; this is the reaction by which star burns involve the fusion of protium and deuterium to make helium under tremendous temperature and pressure to convert matter into light radiation and heat energy. The generation of an immense amount of energy without the emission of greenhouse gases has been the dream of scientists for years, and it has come true!
China spent $ trillion to achieve the goal of power generation without carbon dioxide and other hazardous emissions, a mode of energy production that is no threat to the environment and results in enough fuel to power the planet for hundreds of years.
Cloning the severe conditions inside the hearts of the Sun is not a child’s play; the design for a nuclear fusion reactor like Tokamak involves the superheating of plasma before trapping inside the chamber with a strong magnetic field.
For the scientists, It had been difficult for many years to build a device that would hold the turbulent and superheated plasma long enough to carry out the nuclear fusion process. In 1958, Soviet Scientist Natan Yavlinsky developed the first Tokamak, but he and his contemporaries failed to design a reactor that gave more energy than it takes.
One of the staggering blocks is controlling the plasma that is not responsive to fusion; as we discussed earlier, fusion reactors need very high temperatures, even hotter than the Sun. When we talk about the complexity of the fusion process, it does not mean that heating plasma to a temperature scorching than the Sun is complex, but what is tricky that disturbs is the finding of the corral to resist the burning of plasma through the walls of the reactor (either with lasers or magnetic fields) without ruination of the fusion process.
According to a recent report of Live Science, 35 countries, including the UK, USA, China, India, and European Union, are set to collaborate to develop the world’s largest nuclear reactor named , Experimentalr (ITER) — that, currentlyconstruction in Marseille, France.
It is reported that magnets of ITER are so strong that they produce a magnetic field that is 280,000 times as strong as the one around the Earth.
This fusion reaction is expected to be functionalized in 2025, providing scientists with even more insights into the feasibility of harnessing star power on Earth.
China is organizing the initial confinement fusion experiments and planning to finalize a new tokamak soon. China is pursuing more of its programs to develop nuclear fusion power.
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