China successfully powered up its “artificial sun” nuclear fusion reactor for the first time marking a great advance in the country’s nuclear power research capabilities.
Key takeaways
The HL-2M Tokamak reactor is China’s largest and most advanced nuclear fusion experimental research device.
Name of the mission: Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST).
Location: Sichuan province
The reactor is often called an “artificial sun” due to the enormous heat and power it produces.
It uses a powerful magnetic field to fuse hot plasma and can reach temperatures of over 150 million degrees Celsius which is approximately ten times hotter than the core of the sun.
Scientists hope that the device can potentially unlock a powerful clean energy source.
Important value addition
Nuclear fusion is a reaction in which two or more atomic nuclei are combined to form one or more different atomic nuclei and subatomic particles (neutrons or protons).
Fusion is the process by which the sun and other stars generate light and heat.
It is a nuclear process, where energy is produced by smashing together light atoms.
It is the opposite reaction of fission, where heavy elements like Uranium and Thorium are split apart.
For a nuclear fusion reaction to occur, it is necessary to bring two nuclei so close that nuclear forces become active and glue the nuclei together.
Do you know?
Nuclear forces are small-distance forces and have to act against the electrostatic forces where positively charged nuclei repel each other.
This is the reason nuclear fusion reactions occur mostly in high density, high-temperature environment which is practically very difficult to achieve under laboratory conditions.
