China has taken an important step in testing this Fusion reactor. The country set a new world record by reaching a plasma temperature of 120 million degrees Celsius in 101 seconds in an experiment conducted on Friday (28) at the Tokamak Advanced Experimental Superconductor (EAST, English for short).

Also known as “Chinese artificial sun”, Created to replicate the instrument located at the Hefei Institute of Physical Sciences at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Nuclear fusion Occurred in the Sun and other stars. When in operation, technology can help produce pure energy almost indefinitely.

On the same day, scientists were able to heat the yeast to a much higher temperature of 160 million degrees Celsius, but for a short time (20 seconds). By comparison, the Sun’s core temperature is only 15 million degrees “10 times lower than the new record set.

Image of the interior of China’s “artificial sun”.Source: Global Times / Reproduction

Li Miao, director of the physics department at the University of South China University of Science and Technology, celebrated by surpassing 100 million degrees Celsius in 100 seconds. “The progress is significant and the ultimate goal is to keep the temperature stable for a long time,” the experts said.

Future technology

Reaching a plasma temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius is the biggest challenge in controlling nuclear fusion. Since this is already gaining ground in experiments, researchers want to keep China’s artificial sun at this level for at least a week.

But the energy generated by nuclear fusion will still take some time to fully master and apply commercially. According to Lin Boqiang, director of the China Center for Research in Energy Economics at Xiamen University, this will only happen in 30 years, but it will have many economic benefits.