A new record in China for nuclear fusion
In the current context of global warming, the search for clean energy is one of the priorities. Among the various “candidates”, the nuclear fusion with its promise of almost inexhaustible energy, serves as a favorite. The basic idea is to imitate the Sun, which produces light and heat through fusion. But, its implementation on Earth is complicated, because it is necessary to control two factors: reaching a high temperature and maintaining the plasma over time. Nevertheless, on December 30, 2021, the race for nuclear fusion reached a new milestone. the advanced experimental superconductor tokamak (EAST) of Hefei in China, reached 5 times the temperature of our star for more than 17 minutes.
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For Chinese researchers, this new record is a sign of the progress made. Recently, in May 2021, this installation, entitled “Artificial Sun” had already succeeded in maintaining the plasma at a temperature of 120 million degrees Celsius for 101 seconds. And even a cloud at 160 million degrees Celsius for the next 20 seconds.
How to create an “artificial Sun” on Earth?
In the sun, the atoms concerned are hydrogen. When they fuse together, they form helium, an element that is lighter than the two hydrogen atoms. The difference in mass is emitted as thermal energy, which is released by the Sun in the form of light and heat.
On Earth, scientists have tried for many years to replicate this process in facilities like the tokamak, an experimental magnetic containment device exploring the physics of plasmas. Within this donut-shaped facility, the atoms of tritium and deuterium – isotopes of hydrogen – are heated to very high temperatures, to the point where they begin to fuse and generate a helium plasma. , or about 150 million degrees Celsius. The energy that can be generated by this fusion could be titanic. The next step ? Stabilize this reaction in order to be able to produce energy autonomously, as in the Sun. Hence the importance of obtaining increasingly long reactions in order to approach this objective.