china-fusion-reactor

It was reported last week that Germany had taken a huge step forward with its massive nuclear fusion machine as it had been able to create its first ever hydrogen plasma. The machine was able to produce and sustain hydrogen plasma in its first attempt. China has gone one step further. Its fusion reactor tests have created plasma that hit a temperature of 90 million degrees Fahrenheit, hotter than the core of the Sun, and sustained it for nearly two minutes, 102 seconds to be precise.

The tests were carried out in the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak. Intense magnetic fields are carefully controlled in the machine allowing the plasma to be contained in a tight ring that runs through the center of the machine’s circular cross section.

Sustaining incredibly high temperatures of plasma are instrumental in creating energy which is the ultimate goal of fusion reactors. These reactions have to run for a significant amount of time as starting them needs a huge input of energy. If the reaction stalls too soon its net negative in terms of energy.

It merits mentioning here that this isn’t the hotter temperate ever created on earth. The LHC has been able to create plasma “soup” consisting of sub-atomic elements with the temperature reaching as high as 10 trillion degrees, that’s about 250,000 hotter than the core of the Sun.

Filed in General. Read more about and . Source: scmp

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