In this video, we will tell you why China is building the Artificial Sun EAST (Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak) and how the EAST works and what are its benefits for the world.

China has achieved a new milestone in humanity's experiments to harness the power of the stars.
On 28th of May, for 20 seconds, China's 'artificial sun' EAST achieved a peak temperature of 288 million degrees Fahrenheit, which is over ten times hotter than the sun. By doing so the Fusion Reactor Just Broke a New World Record.
The latest feat by Chinese scientists is a significant step in the country’s quest to unlock clean and limitless energy, with minimal waste products. “The breakthrough is significant progress, and the ultimate goal should be keeping the temperature at a stable level for a long time,” Li Miao, the director of the department of physics at the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, told the Global Times.
But experts say there is still a long way to go for China’s experimental ‘artificial sun’.

So, what is China’s ‘artificial sun’ EAST?

The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) reactor is an advanced nuclear fusion experimental research device located at the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Hefei, China. The purpose of the artificial sun is to replicate the process of nuclear fusion, which is the same reaction that powers the sun.

Since it first became operational in 2006, the EAST has set several records for the duration of confinement of exceedingly hot plasma. The EAST project is part of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor facility, which will become the world’s largest nuclear fusion reactor when it becomes operational in 2035. The project includes the contributions of several countries, including India, South Korea, Japan, Russia and the United States.

The EAST Tokamak device is designed to replicate the nuclear fusion process carried out by the sun and stars. Nuclear fusion is a process through which high levels of energy are produced without generating large quantities of waste. Previously, energy was produced through nuclear fission — a process in which the nucleus of a heavy atom was split into two or more nuclei of lighter atoms.

While fission is an easier process to carry out, it generates far more nuclear waste. Unlike fission, fusion also does not emit greenhouse gases and is considered a safer process with a lower risk of accidents. Once mastered, nuclear fusion could potentially provide unlimited clean energy and very low costs.

For nuclear fusion to occur, tremendous heat and pressure are applied on hydrogen atoms so that they fuse together. The nuclei of deuterium and tritium — both found in hydrogen — are made to fuse together to create a helium nucleus, a neutron along with a whole lot of energy.
Fuel is heated to temperatures of over 150 million degrees C so that it forms a hot plasma “soup” of subatomic particles. With the help of a strong magnetic field, the plasma is kept away from the walls of the reactor to ensure it does not cool down and lose its potential to generate large amounts of energy. The plasma is confined for long durations for fusion to take place.

It takes around 300 scientists and engineers to support and operate the experimental facility that contains EAST. This large, donut-shaped metal tube has a series of magnetic coils used to hold superheated streams of hydrogen plasma zooming around the core.
The challenge is to hold the plasma in place for long enough, in a hot-enough inferno, for fusion to occur. It needs to be even hotter than the Sun because our star's much stronger gravity helps squeeze the nuclei together - something we can't replicate here on Earth.
With the theoretical potential to safely produce such vast amounts of energy without greenhouse gases and barely any radioactive waste, fusion power is considered by some as the holy grail of clean energy.

The EAST reactor set a new record on Friday when it achieved a plasma temperature of 216 million degrees Fahrenheit and also managed to run for 20 seconds at 288 million degrees Fahrenheit.

The next goal for the scientists behind the experimental reactor is to maintain the high temperature for a long period of time. Previously, the EAST had reached a record temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius in 2018.

With the world switching towards green energy, the fusion reactor once operational could pave the way for a clean source of an unlimited supply of energy.
#china #cleanenergy #EAST

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