By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-01-21 06:11:19 | Updated at 2025-01-21 09:49:24
3 hours ago
Scientists in China on a quest to build a nuclear fusion reactor capable of producing unlimited low-cost energy have achieved a sustained plasma temperature exceeding 100 million degrees Celsius (180 million Fahrenheit) for an unprecedented 1,066 seconds – a world record.
The milestone, achieved at the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) facility at the Institute of Plasma Physics in Hefei on Monday, surpassed the previous record duration of 403 seconds set by EAST in April 2023.
The researchers have been conducting their tests on an experimental device for China’s “artificial sun” project, seen as a critical step towards making fusion reactors a reality.
“To achieve self-sustaining plasma and enable fusion power plants to generate electricity continuously, a fusion device must operate highly efficiently in a stable state for thousands of seconds,” said the institute’s director Song Yuntao.
Achieving viable nuclear fusion on Earth will require plasma temperatures hotter than the sun to compensate for our planet’s smaller mass, according to scientists. The temperature at the core of the sun is about 15 million degrees Celsius, according to the mainstream estimate.
Monday’s breakthrough recreated the conditions required for future fusion reactors. “Crossing the threshold of 100 million degrees and 1,000 seconds demonstrated our capability to simulate the operational environment of a future fusion power plant,” Sun told state news agency Xinhua.
