A Chinese fusion reactor, also called an "

U Focus. Technologies has its own Telegram channel. Subscribe so you don't miss the latest and most exciting news from the world of science!

Fusion reactors are often called “artificial Suns” because they create energy just like our star does.. This occurs through the fusion of hydrogen atoms or their isotopes when a large amount of energy is created. In the core of the Sun, atoms are synthesized using high pressure and high temperature.. But it is impossible to obtain such pressure on Earth, and therefore physicists compensate for this by heating the plasma to tens of millions of degrees Celsius, and this is much higher than the temperature in the core of the Sun.

The experimental tokamak-type fusion reactor EAST is located in the Chinese city of Hefei, China.. In 2023, Chinese physicists managed to maintain stable plasma in a reactor for 403 seconds, but now it has become known that they managed to break this record. Stable hot plasma was held inside the reactor for 1066 seconds. This achievement is a major step forward towards virtually limitless clean energy that will enable humanity to move away from fossil fuels.. The production of this energy does not create greenhouse gas emissions or nuclear waste, as in nuclear power plants..

In order to build fusion power plants that will generate almost limitless energy, several important problems need to be solved.. In particular, experimental reactors such as EAST require very long confinement of very hot plasma to maintain stable fusion. You also need to learn how to obtain much more energy using thermonuclear fusion than wasted on starting it.

The EAST fusion reactor is a tokamak, that is, a torus-shaped reactor where very hot plasma is contained using very strong magnetic fields. Although Chinese physicists were unable to produce more energy during fusion than they used to launch it, the record plasma confinement is still an important achievement. The plasma inside the reactor must be maintained in a stable state for a very long time and only then is it possible to maintain stable thermonuclear fusion.

A new record by Chinese physicists will help create reactors that will produce thermonuclear energy in huge volumes in the future. So far, scientists around the world cannot say when they will be able to obtain limitless energy, but some physicists believe that this will be possible within the next decades.

In order to set a new plasma confinement record, Chinese scientists upgraded the EAST thermonuclear reactor, which made it possible to increase the power of magnetic fields and increase the plasma heating temperature.

Focus has already written about what scientists need to do in order to create a fusion reactor that could constantly create almost limitless energy.

Focus also wrote that scientists predict a very high level of solar activity this year. This means that we can expect extremely strong flares and powerful plasma eruptions from our star.. Such events could result in a massive geomagnetic storm that could cause enormous damage to our technology..