The Institute of Plasma Physics at Chinese Academy of Sciences have set a new world record in fusion by achieving 101.2 seconds in the so-called H-mode confinement regime in a fusion reactor on the 3rd of July.
The experiment was conducted on Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) reactor at the Institute of Physical Science in Hefei, China.
The EAST tokamak was able to heat plasma to about 50 million Celsius, that’s more than three times as hot as the core of the sun, for over 100 seconds.
Sustaining these incredibly high temperatures for long enough to harness the energy produced by the reaction is key to achieving controlled nuclear fusion. Moreover, a stable alignment of the magnetic fields that are used to manoeuvre the plasma away from the walls of the machine is required together with the collection of high-energy particles and heat energy that are produced as part of the reaction.
China is a member country of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project, therefore data from their experiment may be of use to ITER that is now under construction in France. H‐mode is the high confinement regime that all modern tokamaks, including ITER, rely on.
The ultimate goal of Chinese scientists in EAST is to reach 100 million degrees Celsius for over 1,000 seconds (nearly 17 minutes).
Source: Science alert