Chinese “Artificial Sun” Breaks Records

Nuclear fusion is often touted as the energy solution of the future, and China’s newly developed experimental fusion reactor has just achieved a milestone in harvesting the power of the atom.

The Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ASIPP) announced that last month, the state’s “artificial sun” – known as the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) fusion reactor – had kept plasma fusing at a temperature of 120 million degrees Celsius for just over 17-and-a-half minutes.

Not only did the doughnut–shaped reactor outdo its previous record of 160 million degrees Celsius for 20 seconds in May last year, but it also managed to sustain a temperature close to the original record for 1 056 seconds.

To give you an idea of the sheer scale of this experiment that the Chinese scientists performed, our sun burns at a toasty 27 million degrees Celsius.

The facility continues to push boundaries of the EAST technology, which they intend to use to create clean, sustainable energy.

“ASIPP has a perfect team. We will face up to difficulties no matter how hard it is!” said Professor Yuntao Song, Director-General of ASIPP.