China’s ‘artificial sun’ breaks record, marking latest milestone in quest for efficient thermonuclear fusion reactors

The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak generates and sustains plasma for nearly seven minutes – four times as long as its previous record

It uses powerful magnetic fields to confine super-hot plasma, forcing hydrogen to combine into heavier atoms and releasing energy in the process

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China’s EAST, which has been operating since 2006, represents one of the most promising paths towards controlled nuclear fusion. Photo: Handout

Published: 4:00pm, 13 Apr 2023Updated: 4:03pm, 13 Apr 2023

China’s “artificial sun” set a world record on Wednesday night by generating and maintaining extremely hot, highly confined plasma for nearly seven minutes.

The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) in the city of Hefei in eastern China generated and sustained plasma for 403 seconds, breaking its previous record of 101 seconds in 2017 and marking another key step towards building high-efficiency, low-cost thermonuclear fusion reactors.

“The main significance of this new breakthrough lies in its ‘high-confinement mode’, under which the temperature and density of the plasma increase significantly,” said Song Yuntao, director of the Institute of Plasma Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which built EAST.

State news agency Xinhua quoted Song as saying the work laid a solid foundation for improving the technical and economic feasibility of fusion reactors.

Nuclear fusion – the same process through which our sun generates light and heat – is seen as a safe, clean and near-limitless energy source.

For decades, scientists have worked to develop “artificial suns” by heating hydrogen atoms to above 100 million degrees Celsius (180 million degrees Fahrenheit) and confining them long enough so they can merge into heavier atoms, releasing enormous energy in the process.

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China’s ‘artificial sun’ breaks record, marking latest milestone in quest for efficient thermonuclear fusion reactors

The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak generates and sustains plasma for nearly seven minutes – four times as long as its previous record It uses powerful magnetic fields to confine super-hot plasma, forcing hydrogen to combine into heavier atoms and releasing energy in the process

The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak generates and sustains plasma for nearly seven minutes – four times as long as its previous record

It uses powerful magnetic fields to confine super-hot plasma, forcing hydrogen to combine into heavier atoms and releasing energy in the process