"The Second Sun of the Earth": China's fusion future and unlimited energy

March 19, 2019 The Galaxy wrote that ChinaIt is about to launch an “artificial sun” that promises a future of unlimited pure energy. Unlike nuclear fission, synthesis does not emit virtually any greenhouse gases and carries less risk of accidental leakage of atomic substances. "Artificial Sun" is a Chinese experimental advanced superconducting tokamak in the shape of a torus, which is built on an earthen spit in a lake in the eastern province of Anhui.

The source of eternal energy will be in China

Provincial officials announced that this yearThe machine, which will contain “artificial sun”, will be built and activates nuclear fusion, during which hydrogen from seawater and readily available lithium will be heated to a temperature of more than 150 million degrees Celsius.

Already operating a reactor of this type in Hefeigave the same temperature as in the depths of the sun. In November, it became the first object in the world in which the temperature of 100 million degrees was reached - six times higher than in the core of our star. These incredible temperatures are crucial for the stable maintenance of nuclear fusion reactions, which promise to be an inexhaustible source of energy.

"The plasma of the artificial sun basically consistselectrons and ions, and tokamak devices existing in the country reached an electron temperature of over 100 million degrees Celsius in the plasma of the nucleus and ion temperatures of 50 million degrees, and it is the ions that generate energy in the device, ”says Dr. Duan Tsuru nuclear corporation.

HL-2M "Tokamak" will increase the intensityelectricity from one megaampere to three, which will be an important step to achieve nuclear fusion. Deuterium, extracted from one liter of seawater, in the course of a complete synthesis reaction, emits the energy equivalent of burning 300 liters of gasoline.

"Artificial Sun" will carry out the synthesisjust like the sun, using deuterium and tritium (radioactive hydrogen-3), and generate electricity. Clean energy will not produce waste, making it ideal for future human use.

The form of the current "artificial sun"resembles an imaginary "planetary engine" from the Chinese wandering blockbuster "Wandering Earth", and its main device is a red rectangle.

In 2018, scientists announced that they managed to keep the temperature for 60 seconds, but the goal is to maintain it for a longer time, up to a thousand seconds.

“We hope to deploy an internationalcollaborating on this device and making Chinese contributions to the future use of thermonuclear fusion by mankind, ”says Song Yongtao, who is working on the project.

China also plans to build a separate reactor.nuclear fusion, which will begin to generate commercially available synthesized electricity by mid-century. EAST is also part of an international ITER project that also works on the availability of fusion energy.

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