CHINA’S EXPERIMENTAL ADVANCED SUPERCONDUCTING TOKAMAK (EAST) SETS NEW FUSION REACTION RECORD

GS3 SCIENCE & TECH 

China’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), also known as China’s Artificial Sun, maintained a steady-state high-confinement plasma operation for over 1,000 seconds, reaching a temperature of 100 million °C.

• Tokamak: A machine that confines plasma using magnetic fields in a donut shape to harness fusion energy.

Significance of the Achievement

• Step Towards Fusion-Based Nuclear Reactors: Fusion reactors could serve as alternatives to other clean energy sources like wind and solar.
• Addressing Global Energy Crisis and Climate Change: Fusion energy has the potential to mitigate these issues.

Advantages of Nuclear Fusion

• High Energy Output: Produces more energy than any other source.
• Abundant and Affordable Fuel: Uses readily available materials like deuterium, tritium, hydrogen, and lithium.
• Environmentally Friendly: Zero-emission footprint and no contribution to greenhouse gas emissions.
• Safe and Clean Process: Produces helium and recycles tritium, resulting in no long-lived radioactive waste.

Challenges in Nuclear Fusion

• Extreme Temperature Requirements: Fusion requires temperatures exceeding hundreds of millions of degrees Celsius.
• Plasma Containment: At such high temperatures, matter exists only in the plasma state, making containment difficult.
• Magnetic Confinement: Strong magnetic fields are needed to suspend plasma within a confined space.

Nuclear Fusion and Fission

• Nuclear Fusion: The process of combining two light atomic nuclei to form a heavier nucleus, releasing massive energy.
• Nuclear Fission: The splitting of a heavy atomic nucleus into smaller fragments, releasing energy.
• Energy Output: Fusion produces more energy than fission.