According to the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), China’s new-generation “artificial sun”, the HL-2M Tokamak went into operation and has achieved its first plasma discharge.
This artificial sun will be ten times the temperature of the core of the Sun.
Designed to replicate the natural reactions that occur in the sun using hydrogen and deuterium gases as fuels, this artificial sun appartus, will provide clean energy through controlled nuclear fusion.
It is able to generate plasma hotter than 150 million degrees Celsius and is expected to greatly enhance the research and development of key technologies in plasma physics research in China.
The energy confinement time of international tokamak devices is less than one second. The shot discharge duration of the HL-2M is around 10 seconds, with an energy confinement time of a few hundred milliseconds.
The artificial sun will provide key technical support for China’s participation in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project and frontier research fields including flow instability and magnetic phenomena of ultra-high temperature plasma.
News Source: Xinhua
