Fusion Reactor in China Sets New Record for Continuous Reaction

What Happened?

Chinese researchers from the Institute of Plasma Physics (ASIPP) at the Hefei Institute of Physical Science created and sustained a nuclear fusion reaction at a temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius for 1,066 seconds.

That breaks their previous record of 403 seconds they set in April 2023.

The achievement by China’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) represents another milestone in the country’s quest to win the ongoing nuclear fusion race with the United States, Japan, South Korea, and the European Union.

Why it Matters

Nuclear energy can come from two different kinds of reactions, fission and fusion.

In a fission reaction, particles of fissionable material such as uranium or plutonium are pushed into a chain reaction which releases a tremendous amount of energy. The energy release can be all at once in the form of a nuclear explosion, or gradually in a more controlled manner, which is how nuclear power plants produce energy.

Where fission reactions occur by splitting atoms apart, fusion reactions are generated by combining or fusing two or more atoms together. While fission reactions can release enormous amounts of energy, once the fuel is spent no more energy can be released.

By contrast with fusion reactions there is only a theoretical limit on how long or how much energy they could generate. Stars like the sun are powered by fusion reactions, which can go on indefinitely.

Because fusion reactions have the potential to release more energy for a much longer period of time, scientists have long sought a way to extract energy from a fusion reaction.

The problem is the extreme conditions required to achieve a stable and lasting fusion reaction. If such a reaction could be generated and sustained, it could generate nearly unlimited energy.

But thus far, the only way to create the conditions needed, including extremely high temperatures, uses far more energy than is released, making the effort a net energy consumer rather than an energy producer.

The key is sustainability. If a fusion reaction could be sustained long enough then the energy released would eventually be more than the energy required to create it.

While the latest fusion experiment in China did not generate more energy than it consumed, it came closer than any previous effort to doing so because it lasted longer than any other prior fusion attempt.

How it Affects You

With the global population at an all-time high and more people than ever consuming energy, the race is on to find lasting sources of power.

While all energy sectors are seeing growth, fusion energy is the only one that holds the potential to generate so much power for such a long period of time.

Any nation that successfully developed a sustainable fusion reactor for power generation would have a significant energy advantage over its rivals.