Korea's 'artificial sun' sets a new record

Scientists at the Korea Institute of Fusion Energy set a new record when maintaining a superheated plasma stream for 30 seconds in a tokamak reactor.

The idea behind fusion energy is to replicate the process that occurs inside the Sun. Massive gravity combines with intense heat and pressure to create plasma, in which nuclei collide at high speeds, creating helium and releasing energy.

KSTAR reactor is likened to "Artificial Sun" of Korea. (Photo: Michel Maccagnan)

The tokamak furnace is designed to replicate the above process on Earth with a series of coils placed around an annular reactor, using a magnetic field to slow down a hot plasma stream of millions of degrees Celsius for long enough for the fusion process. nuclear takes place. Many experimental devices are in operation around the world, and the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research Reactor (KSTAR) has made great strides.

Construction of the reactor was completed in 2007. KSTAR produced its first plasma stream in 2008. In 2016, KSTAR set a world record by maintaining a hot plasma stream of 50 million degrees Celsius for 70 seconds. This record was broken in 2017 by China's Advanced Experimental Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) with a time of 102 seconds.

However, the goal of such devices is to heat the plasma to more than 100 degrees Celsius. In 2018, KSTAR achieved that in 1.5 seconds, increasing to 8 seconds in 2019 and 20 seconds in May. 12/2020.

According to Business Korea, the scientists working on the KSTAR project took it one step further, raising the record to 30 seconds. This result comes from the optimization of the magnetic field and the heating system. The team aims to maintain the plasma flow for 300 seconds by 2026 through a power supply upgrade and using a tungsten converter to prevent the temperature from rising in the inner wall of the plasma chamber.