China has achieved a major milestone in the quest for practical commercial fusion power. The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) reactor in Hefei, Anhui Province has set a new record with a 1,066-second sustained fusion reaction.
For 80 years, there has been a concerted effort to turn the incredible destructive power of the hydrogen bomb into a practical source of power. In part, this has been a matter of pure science. In part, it's been a major technical challenge. And, in part, it's been a legacy of Cold War rivalries.
It's been a frustrating enterprise that sometimes seems as far from the goal as it was at the end of the Second World War, but the stakes have been such that today a record US$7.1 billion in private investments have been thrown into the pot. Small wonder. One gram of deuterium-tritium fuel holds 90,000-kWh of energy or the equivalent of 11 tonnes of coal, so the prize is literally unlimited clean energy, or as much as would ever be wanted by humanity, for the rest of time.
However, progress has been made, as the China announcement shows. Achieving the fusion of hydrogen atoms outside of the core of the Sun or a weapon is easier than many think. In fact, it's a simple lab bench experiment. At the 1964 New York World's Fair, a fusion experiment was the centerpiece of the General Electric Pavilion, where attempts were made to fuse atoms at regular intervals for the public. Commercial fusion is another matter.
To achieve practical fusion, a number of conditions must be met. It needs a temperature of about 100 – 150 million °C (180 – 270 million °F), a pressure of five to 10 atmospheres at the point of reaction, and the ability to maintain a stable high-energy plasma for at least 10 seconds. The "at least" is the very bare minimum. "Indefinitely" is far preferable.
"A fusion device must achieve stable operation at high efficiency for thousands of seconds to enable the self-sustaining circulation of plasma, which is critical for the continuous power generation of future fusion plants," said Song Yuntao, ASIPP director in a release by Chinese state media.
The new record builds on the previous record of 403 seconds set by EAST at the Institute of Plasma Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (ASIPP) in 2023. The increase was made possible by a number of upgrades to the experimental system that have doubled the power output while keeping the reaction stable.
Chinese officials point out that EAST is not an end in itself. China is one of seven members of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) program, which is building the world's largest experimental tokamak fusion reactor in southern France, which is expected to come on line by about 2035. The results from EAST will be part of China's nine-percent contribution to ITER's construction and operation.
Source: Xinhua
