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.