China's "Artificial Sun"

[Randy W]

"Artificial Sun": A new hope for solving the nuclear power dilemma

Chinese scientists recently announced that they set a world record by achieving over 100 seconds of steady-state H-mode operation of Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST). This milestone sets a solid technological foundation for the development and utilization of clean energy in the field of international nuclear fusion.

EAST, dubbed an “artificial sun,” is an experimental device designed to harness fusion energy.

from China Pictorial on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/ChinaPic/posts/1334010290057690

 

China Pictorial

59 mins ·

 

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"Artificial Sun": A new hope for solving the nuclear power dilemma

Chinese scientists recently announced that they set a world record by achieving over 100 seconds of steady-state H-mode operation of Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST). This milestone sets a solid technological foundation for the development and utilization of clean energy in the field of international nuclear fusion.

EAST, dubbed an “artificial sun,” is an experimental device designed to harness fusion energy.

Nuclear fusion is considered the energy of the future. A 1GW power station requires 500,000 tons of coal, and a nuclear power plant of the same capacity requires 30 tons of nuclear fuel. Yet a thermonuclear fusion plant only requires 100 kilograms of water and lithium to generate the same amount of electricity.

The “tokamak” concept uses a powerful magnetic field to confine plasma in the shape of a torus. Magnetic fields are used for confinement since no solid material can withstand the extremely high temperature of the plasma needed to produce controlled thermonuclear fusion power, or an “artificial sun.”
Based on the tokamak, researchers at the Institute of Plasma Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences enabled China to independently design and construct EAST in 10 years. The facility is 11 meters tall, with a diameter of eight meters, and weighs 400 tons. The fourth generation of experimental Chinese nuclear fusion devices, its purpose is facilitating nuclear fusion reactions under high temperature with the large amount of deuterium and tritium in seawater, to provide continuous clean energy for mankind.

Technological breakthroughs with the artificial sun will help solve the nuclear power dilemma. Nuclear fusion technology does not produce radioactive materials that pollute the environment. Controlled fusion reactions can be carried out steadily in thin gas, making it clean and safe.

In the latest experiment, EAST created steady-state high-constrained plasma-emission for 101.2 seconds at a temperature of 50 million degrees Celsius.

 

 

Edited December 14, 2022 by Randy W (see edit history)

[RobertH]

Pssssft Nuttin New I built one in my Basement last week. Had the parts left over from old Radio Shack kits.

[True Blue]

I think nuclear plus electric vehicles will hep the world lessen its long term dependence on rapidly depleting fossil fuels.

Probably will help avoid more Middle East deaths as well since the greed for their oil will become diminished.

[Randy W]

I thought this was a good assessment, from a friend on Facebook

 

 

 

We've been told fusion was right around the corner since elementary school. Confining the "artificial sun" for 100 seconds is a long ways from an operating power plant running 24/7. I'm much more hopeful about smaller fission nuclear power plants that will safely shut down through natural processes if there is a problem. My rant for today.

[Randy W]

from China Daily

 

China's 'artificial sun' achieves major breakthrough

 

The photo shows the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) in Hefei, East China's Anhui province, dubbed as artificial sun, Aug 16, 2018. [Photo/VCG]

 

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In stable fusion, a temperature of 100 million C is one of the most fundamental elements, because fusion is possible only if the central temperature reaches 100 million C.

 

. . .

 

Nuclear fusion is arguably the best way for human beings to get energy. In terms of raw materials, deuterium and tritium required for nuclear fusion are almost inexhaustible in the ocean. Besides, nuclear fusion does not produce any radioactive waste, so it is extremely environmentally friendly.

 

China independently designed and constructed the EAST in 2006. The facility is 11 meters tall, with a diameter of 8 meters, and a weight of 400 tons. The country is the first in the world to design and develop such an equipment on its own.

 

 

 

A more coherent article from Newsweek - but says pretty much the same thing

CHINA'S ARTIFICIAL SUN ACHIEVES TEMPERATURES OF 100 MILLION DEGREES IN NUCLEAR FUSION BREAKTHROUGH

Edited May 29, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

from Abacus

 

China’s completed ‘artificial sun’ to start operation in 2020

 

China’s HL-2M nuclear fusion device burns with the power of 13 suns

 

Physics professor Gao Zhe from Beijing's Tsinghua University told the South China Morning Post in July that scientists around the world still had many problems to overcome in the field of nuclear fusion.

“There is no guarantee that all these problems will be solved. But if we don’t do it, the problems will definitely not be solved,” he said.

. . .

The project is a part of China’s involvement with the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), based in France. The ITER is the world’s largest nuclear fusion project with a price tag of about €20 billion (US$22 billion). It involves 35 countries and is expected to be completed in 2025.

It's also important for China's nuclear fusion reactor research. China's first fusion device, the HL-1, was completed in 1984. The Southwestern Institute of Physics is the oldest and largest research and development base for controlled nuclear fusion energy in China.

 

[Randy W]

Chinese scientists set a new world record on Friday by achieving a plasma temperature of 120 million degrees Celsius for a period of 101 seconds, a key step toward the test running of a fusion reactor.

from CGTN on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/565225540184937/posts/6360686593972107/

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The experiment at the experimental advanced superconducting tokamak (EAST), or the Chinese "artificial sun," also realized a plasma temperature of 160 million degrees Celsius, lasting for 20 seconds.

The ultimate goal of EAST, located at ASIPP in Hefei, is to create nuclear fusion like the Sun, using deuterium abound in the sea to provide a steady stream of clean energy.

It is estimated that the deuterium in one liter of seawater can produce, through fusion reaction, the amount of energy equivalent to 300 liters of gasoline.

 . . .

The experiment at the experimental advanced superconducting tokamak (EAST), or the Chinese "artificial sun," also realized a plasma temperature of 160 million degrees Celsius, lasting for 20 seconds.

The ultimate goal of EAST, located at ASIPP in Hefei, is to create nuclear fusion like the Sun, using deuterium abound in the sea to provide a steady stream of clean energy.

It is estimated that the deuterium in one liter of seawater can produce, through fusion reaction, the amount of energy equivalent to 300 liters of gasoline.

 

 

Edited December 14, 2022 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

China switched on its nuclear fusion device that’s 5 times hotter than the Sun

from BGR ("Boy Genius Report") via Yahoo News

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This week, China switched on a nuclear fusion reactor. The “artificial sun” is known as the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (or EAST for short). After turning it on, China noticed record high levels for sustained temperatures. According to China’s state media, the EAST reactor ran five times hotter than the real Sun for over 17 minutes.

 

[Randy W]

All bubble-wrapped and ready to deliver

China helps Thailand build tokamak for research

from Xinhua

Scientists and engineers from Thailand pose for a photo in front of the Thailand Tokamak 1 (TT-1) machine in Hefei, east China's Anhui Province, Aug. 24, 2022.(Xinhua/Zhao Jinzheng)

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The facility, renamed Thailand Tokamak 1 (TT-1), was developed by the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (ASIPP).

According to a cooperation agreement signed in 2017, the ASIPP would donate the tokamak to the Thailand Institute of Nuclear Technology (TINT) and help the country install and operate this facility and cultivate talent in the domain of fusion energy research and development.

"The whole facility is composed of 462 major parts, weighing over 84 tonnes. They will be shipped to Thailand in six containers," said Huang Yiyun, a key member of this project from ASIPP.

 

 

[Randy W]

Scientists achieve a breakthrough in nuclear fusion. Here’s what it means.
A U.S. lab has successfully sparked a fusion reaction that released more energy than went into it. But there’s still a long way to go toward fusion as a clean energy source.

This artist’s rendering shows a NIF target pellet inside a capsule with laser beams entering through openings on either end. The beams compress and heat the target to the necessary conditions for nuclear fusion to occur...

LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY

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On December 5, an array of lasers at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), part of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, fired 2.05 megajoules of energy at a tiny cylinder holding a pellet of frozen deuterium and tritium, heavier forms of hydrogen. The pellet compressed and generated temperatures and pressures intense enough to cause the hydrogen inside it to fuse. In a tiny blaze lasting less than a billionth of a second, the fusing atomic nuclei released 3.15 megajoules of energy—about 50 percent more than had been used to heat the pellet.

Though the conflagration ended in an instant, its significance will endure. Fusion researchers have long sought to achieve net energy gain, which is called scientific breakeven. “Simply put, this is one of the most impressive scientific feats of the 21st century,” U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said at a Washington, D.C. media briefing.

In reaching scientific breakeven, NIF has shown that it can achieve “ignition”: a state of matter that can readily sustain a fusion reaction. Being able to study the conditions of ignition in detail will be “a game-changer for the entire field of thermonuclear fusion,” says Johan Frenje, an MIT plasma physicist whose laboratory contributed to NIF’s record-breaking run.

The achievement does not mean that fusion is now a viable power source. While NIF’s reaction produced more energy than the reactor used to heat up the atomic nuclei, it didn’t generate more than the reactor’s total energy use. According to Kim Budil, director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the lasers required 300 megajoules of energy to produce about 2 megajoules’ worth of beam energy. “I don’t want to give you the sense that we’re going to plug the NIF into the grid—that’s not how this works,” Budil added. “It’s a fundamental building block.”

Even so, after decades of trying, scientists have taken a major step toward fusion power. “It looks like science fiction, but they did it, and it’s fantastic what they’ve done,” says Ambrogio Fasoli, a fusion physicist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne.

 

This article is from the National Geographic - paywalled.

An un-paywalled article from NPR is at 

Breakthrough in nuclear fusion technology could dramatically alter clean energy landscape

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Miles O’Brien:

Yes, this — the National Ignition Facility is all about kind of creating the circumstances inside a hydrogen bomb.

This was created after the U.S. agreed to stop underground testing of nuclear weapons in the mid-'90s. So, in order to make the stockpile stay safe, and to ensure they can develop weapons in the future, they had figure out ways to test it. So, that's what this was built for.

It was never built with the idea of creating commercialized energy, but, along the way, they discovered it can be done, although it is a very complex way to do it.

Judy Woodruff:

And, Miles, you were reminding us that there — or reminding us that there are other experiments out there involving nuclear fusion.

Explain what the difference is between what that has been, what that is, and this.

Miles O’Brien:

Well, this one which is designed to help bomb-makers do their job, and we get some energy out of it.

The other idea, which was thought of initially as a way to produce civilian electricity, is called a tokamak, which is a giant racetrack, donut-style racetrack with magnets, huge facilities which create the circumstances where you can fuse these atoms in a very different way.

And there's half-a-dozen or so these projects all around the world, public and private. And they are making steady progress. But this is tough. And, despite all the talk today about the U.S. being leaders in all this, the other — there are other nations which are kind of driving the bus on this.

 . . .

Stephen Dean, President, Fusion Power Associates:

So most of the money and most of the effort is not here, in spite of how we all think of ourselves as always been in the lead and everything.

The Chinese are way ahead of us. The U.K. is way ahead of us. And Japan is right in the mix. So, all you hear about in the U.S. is U.S., U.S., U.S., but, really, the momentum for fusion right now is overseas.

Miles O’Brien:

That said, there are more than 30 private fusion companies in the world, and most of them are in the U.S. There's about a $2.5 billion investment there.

Meanwhile, the government is spending about a billion dollars a year to advance this technology. But, Judy, I should remind you, the old joke among physics — physicists is, fusion is 20 years off, and it always will be.

It's hard to say how much we are closer today. But it seems like this is a milestone to remember.

 

 

Edited December 14, 2022 by Randy W (see edit history)