China's Man-made Sun Sets A New Record To Reach 120 Million Degrees Celsius

JAKARTA - The Artificial Solar energy project developed by China Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) has surprised the public again. This time the artificial sun managed to break the record for its highest temperature by holding plasma at 120 million degrees Celsius for 101 seconds.

Announced by Gong Xianzu, Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) researcher at Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Anhui Province, China. Of course, this achievement is an important step for China to realize sustainable clean energy power generation.

"This breakthrough is a significant advance, and the end goal is to keep the temperature at a stable level for a long time", said Li Miao, director of the physics department at Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen.

Actually, this nuclear fusion reactor also had a temperature of 160 million degrees Celsius, but only worked for 20 seconds. Quoted from the Global Times, EAST is nuclear fusion research to mimic the process used by the Sun.

Later, it will produce large amounts of energy, where intense heat and pressure combine to produce a plasma of atomic nuclei fused at incredible speeds.

It is known, scientists at EAST managed to heat the hydrogen plasma to 50 million degrees Celsius and hold it for 102 seconds in 2016. Then in 2018, researchers raised it to 100 million degrees Celsius, six times hotter than the Sun's core, and lasted for about 10 seconds.

On the other hand, Miao reminded that the nuclear fusion reactor technology still needs another 30 years before it can be used outside the laboratory. Currently, China is also building a new generation of nuclear power plants which they claim are the safest in the world.

"This is more like an important future technology to promote China's environmentally friendly development", Miao said.

For information, China has built at least six fusion reactors to the design of the Tokamak, a torus-shaped chamber created by Soviet physicists in the 1950s that uses magnets to create a stable plasma balance.

EAST is the fifth fusion reactor in China. Sixth, there is a new reactor in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, which was turned on for the first time last December.