China one step closer to harnessing clean, limitless energy from nuclear fusion
China acknowledged as global leader in the field and world’s only nation increasing funding into research to draw energy from ‘artificial sun’
On a quiet, scenic peninsula jutting out into Hefei’s Dongpu Reservoir, physicists recently set a world record, creating hydrogen plasma, hotter than the core of the sun, that burned steadily for more than a minute.
The nuclear fusion researchers kept the ionised gas burning steadily for twice as long as the previous record, set four years ago at the same reactor on Science Island, home to some of China’s largest research facilities.
I have a dream, to see a light bulb lit by the power of fusion within my lifetime
Professor Luo Guangnan, deputy director of the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) facility in Anhui’s provincial capital said some previous fusion experiments had lasted for more than 100 seconds, but they were like “like riding a bucking bronco”, with plasma that was volatile and difficult to control.
However, the experiment conducted at EAST in August was more like a dressage event, with the plasma tamed in a high-performance steady state, known as H-mode, in a donut-shaped chamber shielded by a extremely strong electromagnetic field.
“It is a milestone event, a confidence boost for humanity to harness energy from fusion,” Luo told the South China Morning Post.
Physicists view H-mode as an optimal working scenario for a future fusion power plant, and the one-minute breakthrough owed a great deal to the Chinese government’s heavy investment on fusion research in recent years.