![]() ![]() Researchers working at EAST say they are working towards this goal, as are scientists at other tokamaks like the Korea Institute of Fusion Energy's Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) reactor. That means compensating by heating plasma to around least 270 million F, the temperature at which atomic nuclei in a tokamak will smash together rapidly enough to kick-start nuclear fusion.Īdditionally, to actually generate usable fusion energy, tokamaks must contain the plasma they generate and maintain it at these temperatures long enough for atomic nuclei to begin smashing together and for the process to be self-sustaining. This is because Earth-bound scientists can't replicate the intense pressure generated by gravity at the heart of a star. The temperature of the plasma in tokamaks needs to be hotter than that of stars, where fusion processes occur at about 60 million F. To replicate this stellar process, tokamaks must heat heavy hydrogen atoms (deuterium and tritium) with lasers to temperatures up to hundreds of millions of degrees Fahrenheit while confining this plasma within powerful magnetic fields. In the super-hot plasma-a gas of ionized atoms-that makes up stars, intense gravitational pressure forces the atoms of hydrogen together at high speeds to form helium.Ī single helium atom doesn't have as much mass as two hydrogen atoms and this difference in mass is released as energy that is radiated away by stars. ![]() The fusion process is almost the opposite of the fission process that powers the current generation of nuclear power plants in that, rather than splitting atoms of heavy elements apart, it forces together atoms of light elements to create heavier atoms. Should scientists succeed in bringing this process down to Earth, fusion power could provide the world with a safe, sustainable, environmentally responsible, and abundant source of energy that is an alternative to fission nuclear power. These processes deliver the energy radiated by these stellar bodies, and researchers here on Earth aim to deliver this energy in a controlled manner to power our homes and cities. Tokamaks, like the donut-shaped EAST reactor, are often referred to as "artificial suns" as they are devices that replicate the fusion processes that occur within stars. This time, steady-state plasma operation was sustained for 1,056 seconds at a temperature close to 70 million degrees Celsius, laying a solid scientific and experimental foundation toward the running of a fusion reactor." Gong Xianzu, a researcher at the ASIPP, said: "We achieved a plasma temperature of 120 million degrees Celsius (216 F) for 101 seconds in an experiment in the first half of 2021. Creating a Magnetic Field Around Mars Could Help Us Colonize It.Artificial Sun Potential Source of Almost Limitless Energy Breaks Record.Hubble Spots Superhot Shockwave Coming From Running Man Nebula. ![]()
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