China broke the record by keeping the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) by achieving plasma temperature at 120 million Celsius for 101 seconds and 160 million Celsius for 20 seconds, a major step toward the test run of the fusion reactor.
The Tokamak devise[sic] is located at the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It is designed to replicate the nuclear fusion process that occurs naturally in the sun and stars to provide almost infinite clean energy through controlled nuclear fusion, which is often dubbed the "artificial sun."
The achievement broke a previous record of maintaining the plasma temperature at 100 million C for 100 seconds. According to Li Miao, director of the physics department of the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, it is a milestone in reaching the goal of keeping the temperature at a stable level for a long time.
"The breakthrough is significant progress, and the ultimate goal should be keeping the temperature at a stable level for a long time," Li told the Global Times, adding that the next milestone might be to maintain the stability for a week or more.
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Saturday June 05 2021, @06:29PM (10 children)
100 million Celsius seems a little warm to be keeping around as a stable target. Why not something a little cooler and therefore presumably more thermally manageable? TFA points out that these temps are fifteen times the temperature at the core of the sun.
(Score: 2, Funny) by fustakrakich on Saturday June 05 2021, @06:48PM (3 children)
I wanna see the thermometer they stuck in there
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 05 2021, @10:41PM (1 child)
>... thermometer they stuck in there
Please stop being an idiot. Obviously they used some non-contact method of measuring the temperature, one option might be IR from a good distance back.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 06 2021, @06:37AM
The Christian side hug of temperature measurements.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 06 2021, @03:43AM
I just guessed at the temperature, to be honest.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 05 2021, @06:54PM
Impact energy, needed achieve fusion, and impact probability per time, needed to get a lot of fusion, both increase with pressure and temperature.
The sun has pressures that we cannot achieve on earth. So we crank up the heat instead.
(Score: 3, Informative) by turgid on Saturday June 05 2021, @06:57PM (1 child)
The plasma is held in a magnetic field. It never touches anything.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 06 2021, @12:48AM
As long as the magnetic field holds.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Socrastotle on Saturday June 05 2021, @06:58PM
I am nowhere near well informed enough on this topic to give an ELI5, but I can give you the term to start your deep dive of learning for the answer to this question: Lawson Criteria.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Sunday June 06 2021, @01:43AM (1 child)
The sun doesn't fuse very fast. Any given cubic centimeter of it generates roughly as much heat as a cubic centimeter of a rabbit. The sun has a lot of cubic centimeters, our fusion reactors far fewer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 06 2021, @04:03PM
I don't know about the rabbits on your part of the planet, but over here they aren't at 15 million degrees like the center of the Sun.