China's Artificial Sun Sets World Record with "Hundred-Million Degrees for a Thousand Seconds" | WPN World People News

China's "artificial sun," the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), achieved a significant milestone on January 20 by successfully running a steady-state, high-confinement plasma at a temperature exceeding 100 million degrees Celsius for 1,066 seconds. This breakthrough marks a major step forward in humanity's quest to realize fusion energy.

According to foreign media reports, the achievement of this "hundred-million-degree, thousand-second" steady-state high-confinement mode was made possible by a research team from the Institute of Plasma Physics at the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences. EAST is the world's first fully superconducting tokamak fusion experimental device with a non-circular cross-section. It achieved a long-pulse high-confinement plasma operation at over 100 million degrees Celsius for 1,066 seconds.

Nuclear fusion, often referred to as the "ultimate energy," is a process in which light atomic nuclei combine to form heavier nuclei, releasing immense energy. With abundant fusion fuel resources and no pollutant emissions, nuclear fusion is a clean, inexhaustible energy source, akin to solar energy. As such, controlled nuclear fusion is widely regarded as a key solution to global energy challenges.

For a fusion device to continuously generate electricity, it must achieve high-efficiency and stable operation for thousands of seconds. Song Yuntao, Director of the Institute of Plasma Physics, highlighted the importance of achieving "100 million degrees, 1,000 seconds in high-confinement mode," calling it a significant milestone.

Since the EAST device began operation in 2006, it has undergone 21 rounds of physical experiments and achieved over 150,000 plasma discharges. In terms of long-pulse, high-confinement mode operations, it has successively surpassed milestones of 60 seconds, 100 seconds, and 400 seconds, culminating in the recent breakthrough of 1,066 seconds. This achievement firmly establishes China as a global leader in the field of nuclear fusion research.