Artificial sun
The artificial sun generates 70 million degrees Celsius of heat, which is about five times that of the real sun. Bigger than that, they managed to hold this heat for about 18 minutes.
Scientists hope that it will be possible to generate a huge amount of environmentally friendly energy by using nuclear fusion.
Artificial sun, which is actually a nuclear fusion reactor. The Chinese government-controlled media have claimed they have created an artificial sun. They claim that this has multiplied China’s nuclear research capabilities.
The name of this reactor is ‘HL-2M Tokamak’. Scientists believe that China’s largest and most advanced nuclear fusion experimental research device could uncover this powerful, non-polluting energy source. This reactor uses a strong magnetic field to dissolve hot plasma, which can cause temperatures to exceed 150 million degrees Celsius. That means 10 times more heat than the sun.
Laboratory
According to the Xinhua News Agency, researchers are experimenting with a nuclear fusion reactor called “Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST)” in Hofei, Anhui Province, China. It is part of the Huffy Institute of Physical Sciences.
The reason for saying artificial sun
This type of laboratory is called artificial sun because it mimics the process of nuclear fusion of the original sun. That is, the process of generating energy from the sun is being followed. Hydrogen and deuterium gas are used as fuel in such reactions.
The main goal of the artificial sun
The main goal of the artificial sun is to create an environmentally friendly source of growing human energy demand. The amount of deuterium gas that can be obtained from one liter of ocean water is almost equal to the energy consumed by nuclear fusion by burning 300 liters of gasoline. Now think about how much water there is in the ocean and how much deuterium can be extracted from it. Millions of years of energy demand could be reassured if sustainable methods of energy generation, such as nuclear fusion, could be invented.
Although the EAST laboratory was built by the Chinese, scientists from around the world have been conducting research there since 2006. This artificial sun is the result of the work of more than 10,000 Chinese and foreign scientists. China has already spent 701 million British pounds on the project
According to the South China Morning Post, the researchers operated the ‘artificial sun’ at a temperature of 70 million degrees Celsius for 17 minutes and 36 seconds. However, the center of the main sun can be heated to 15 million degrees Celsius.
In the words of Song Yuntao, director of the Institute of Plasma Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, this is a milestone in moving from research to the practical stage.
Last May, EAST achieved another milestone. The furnace lasted for 101 seconds at 120 million degrees Celsius.
People’s Daily, a Chinese government-controlled media outlet, claims that this will not only meet China’s strategic demand for electricity, but will also make a huge contribution to future energy and the national economy.
Since 2006, Chinese scientists have been trying to build smaller nuclear fusion reactors. Meanwhile, France is building the world’s largest nuclear fusion research project, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, which is expected to be completed by 2025. They want to use this ‘artificial sun’ when working with scientists working on it.