403 seconds! China's "artificial sun" has made a major breakthrough

The 122254th experiment! At 21:00 on April 12, China's "artificial sun" all-superconducting tokamak nuclear fusion experimental device (EAST) set a new world record, successfully achieving steady-state high confinement mode plasma operation for 403 seconds, which is of great significance for exploring the frontier physics problems of future fusion reactors, improving the economy and feasibility of nuclear fusion energy, and accelerating the realization of fusion power generation.

"A ball of dazzling white light rises from the end of the mountain range..." In the science fiction novel "The Three-Body Problem", the light emitted by the nuclear fusion engine of the spacecraft is like the sun. Using technologies such as nuclear fusion, humans have left their home on Earth and become a true space civilization.

All things grow with the help of the sun. The reason why the sun can emit light and heat is because of the nuclear fusion reaction inside it. The raw materials for nuclear fusion energy are extremely abundant on the earth, and the emissions are pollution-free. If we can create a "sun" to generate electricity, humans will hopefully achieve energy freedom.

However, to create a practical "artificial sun", it requires plasma of hundreds of millions of degrees Celsius, continuous operation time of more than a thousand seconds and plasma current of 1 megaampere, which is a huge challenge. To this end, scientists around the world have been working hard for more than 70 years.

Shaped like a "huge furnace", with a "hot fire" surging in its chest. As a major national scientific and technological infrastructure, EAST has a nuclear fusion reaction mechanism similar to that of the sun.

On April 12, Gong Xianzu, the chief director of the EAST physics experiment, looked at the data after the successful experiment. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Duan

On the evening of April 12, after more than ten years of intensive research, EAST successfully achieved steady-state high-confinement mode plasma operation for 403 seconds, breaking the 2017 world record of 101 seconds, and the experimental site was filled with jubilation.

"Shot: 122254." The numbers on the screen in the EAST control hall showed that this was the success achieved after more than 120,000 experiments.

"The main significance of this breakthrough lies in the 'high confinement mode'," said Song Yuntao, deputy director of the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science and director of the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In the high confinement mode, the temperature and density of particles are greatly improved. "This lays a solid physical foundation for improving the power generation efficiency and reducing costs of future fusion power plants."

On April 12, researchers celebrated the success of the experiment in the EAST control hall. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Duan

It is reported that the EAST device has more than 200 core technologies and more than 2,000 patents, integrating cutting-edge technologies such as "ultra-high temperature", "ultra-low temperature", "ultra-high vacuum", "ultra-strong magnetic field" and "ultra-large current", with a total of millions of parts working together. This successful breakthrough is inseparable from the improvement of plasma control, heating, wall treatment, advanced diagnosis and other technologies and the improvement of the inner vacuum chamber.

At present, the engineering design of the next generation of "artificial sun" China's Fusion Engineering Experimental Reactor has been completed, and the goal is to build the world's first fusion demonstration reactor in the future.