China¡¯s Artificial Sun Reached 180 Million¡ãC For 100 Seconds, Broke World Record
During its current run, the reactor also managed to break its previous temperature record, registering temperatures of 288million degrees Fahrenheit or 160million degrees celsius. In case you didn't know, that¡¯s more than ten times hotter than the sun.
China¡¯s nuclear fusion reactor that¡¯s also known as the ¡®artificial sun¡¯ has now set a new world record after it successfully ran at the temperature of 216 million degrees Fahrenheit or 120 million degrees Celsius for 100 seconds.
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This was reported first by the Chinese state media Global Times. The reactor which was first fired in December last year has surpassed its previous world record of maintaining plasma temperature of 180 million degrees Fahrenheit or 100 million degrees Celsius for 100 seconds.
During its current run, the reactor also managed to break its previous temperature record, registering temperatures of 288million degrees Fahrenheit or 160million degrees celsius. In case you didn't know, that¡¯s more than ten times hotter than the sun.
The reactor named Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) is regarded as China¡¯s largest and most technically advanced nuclear fusion research device to date. It harnesses a really strong magnetic field to combine extremely hot plasma.
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Situated in China¡¯s eastern Anhui province, at the Hefei Institute of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the machine tries to replicate the naturally-occurring nuclear fusion reaction in the sun and other stars with an aim to derive limitless, infinite clean energy. It is also often referred to as an ¡®artificial sun¡¯ due to the crazy amount of heat and clean energy it produces.
China has been working on a smaller version of nuclear fusion reactors since 2006. The researchers plan on using this with scientists working on the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in France that¡¯s expected to be completed by 2025.
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According to Li Miao, director of the physics department of the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, the next goal for EAST could be the ability to run at a consistent temperature for a week.
¡°The breakthrough is significant progress, and the ultimate goal should be keeping the temperature at a stable level for a long time,¡± he said in a statement to Global Times.