Latest news with #InstituteofPlasmaPhysics
South China Morning Post
04-05-2025
- Science
- South China Morning Post
‘China speed' accelerates drive towards next step in nuclear fusion
China is accelerating its efforts to build the world's first nuclear fusion reactor capable of achieving net energy generation – a move that would be a historic step towards commercialising a clean, safe and near-limitless source of energy. Advertisement The Burning Plasma Experimental Superconducting Tokamak (Best), is now in its final assembly phase in Hefei and is expected to be completed in 2027, state news agency Xinhua reported. However, SPARC, an experimental fusion facility under construction in Massachusetts, is working towards the same goal – that of producing more energy from fusion than it consumes – and is working to a similar timeline. The assembly of Best involves tens of thousands of components with a total weight of around 6,000 tonnes. 'We have fully mastered the core technologies, both scientifically and technically,' said Song Yuntao, the project's chief engineer from the Institute of Plasma Physics in Hefei, at a ceremony marking the start of the final stage of construction on Thursday. Advertisement Work began two months ahead of schedule, according to Xinhua. 'In less than two years, we completed the civil construction, with components from various systems already reaching operational readiness – this is what we call 'China speed',' said Yan Jianwen, chairman of Neo Fusion, the state-backed company leading the project. Best is a tokamak, a doughnut-shaped device widely seen as the most promising design for making nuclear fusion – a process that recreates the process by which the sun generates energy – a viable source of electricity.
Al Etihad
15-04-2025
- Science
- Al Etihad
China delivers key components for world's largest 'Artificial Sun'
15 Apr 2025 09:27 HEFEI (AGENCIES)China has completed and shipped the final set of Correction Coil In-Cryostat Feeder components to the site of ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) in southern France, signifying that all the super-large components needed for ITER's magnet feeder system have now been successfully developed, its developer ITER magnet feeder system was developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Plasma Physics (ASIPP), and it is known as the "lifeline" of the ITER magnet system. Its largest component, the Correction Coil In-Cryostat Feeder, comprises nine sets built as half-ring structures measuring 16 metres in diameter and 3 metres in ITER, one of the largest and most important international scientific research projects in the world, is popularly known as "Artificial Sun." This nickname stems from its ability to generate clean, carbon-free energy in a way similar to the sun, by emitting light and heat through fusion ITER is jointly funded by the European Union, China, the United States, Japan, the Republic of Korea, India and to Lu Kun, Deputy Director of ASIPP, the magnet feeder system is crucial to ITER. It provides energy and cooling media to the fusion reactor magnets, sends back critical control signals, and also acts as a discharge channel to safely release stored magnet manufactured and tested by ASIPP, the system is the most complex of China's ITER procurement packages, consisting of a total of 31 sets, with a total weight of about 1,600 tonnes, Lu added. Song Yuntao, Vice President of the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science and Director of ASIPP, noted that over the past 20 years, ASIPP has built stable collaborative relationships with more than 140 research institutions across over 50 countries, assisting many emerging countries in developing their own fusion research programmes and facilities.
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
China's new 'artificial sun' sets world record — here's how it could change energy production forever
There's a new sun rising in China. Well, sort of. China's nuclear fusion reactor, called the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) officially but an "artificial sun" by many, has just set a record for the longest sustained, stable nuclear fusion reaction. EAST maintained the reaction for 17 minutes and 46 seconds, smashing its own previous 2023 world record of 6 minutes and 43 seconds, according to Newsweek. If nuclear fusion technology can be safely harnessed, it will provide a practically infinite source of clean energy. Needless to say, that would be incredibly beneficial for humanity. Not only does nuclear fusion not produce the harmful carbon emissions burning fossil fuels does, but it doesn't require constant sun or wind, like solar and turbines respectively do. You turn the machine on, and it just produces basically free power. Forever. Unlike current nuclear-generated power, which relies on nuclear fission, nuclear fusion produces no harmful radioactive elements when under operation. Nuclear fission plants bombard atoms with electrons, breaking them apart, which releases energy but also produces radioactive isotopes that must be safely contained and stored. Nuclear fusion works in the opposite way. Reactors like EAST take hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe and force its atomic nuclei to bond under enormous pressure. This releases huge amounts of energy, which the reactor harnesses. But it's a tough scientific nut to crack. This new record by EAST moves humanity one step closer, though. "A fusion device must achieve stable operation at high efficiency for thousands of seconds to enable the self-sustaining circulation of plasma, which is critical for the continuous power generation of future fusion plants," said Song Yuntao, director of the Chinese Academy of Science's Institute of Plasma Physics. EAST has been in operation for nearly 20 years and has been upgraded thoroughly since it first went online in 2006, according to news agency Xinhua. Should we be pouring money into nuclear fusion technology? Yes — it'll pay off It's worth exploring Not from our tax dollars No — it's a waste Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. What researchers are learning with EAST will be folded into the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, a giant tokamak-type reactor under construction in France, as part of a global effort. "We hope to expand international collaboration via EAST and bring fusion energy into practical use for humanity," Song said in a statement. Join our free newsletter for weekly updates on the latest innovations improving our lives and shaping our future, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Yahoo
28-01-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
'Artificial Sun' Blazes Past 1,000 Seconds in New Fusion Record
Scientists just set a new record in attempts to create an 'artificial Sun' down here on planet Earth. The team behind the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) in China kept their fusion drive running for more than 1,000 seconds for the first time – lasting for 1,066 seconds (almost 18 minutes) to be exact. First powered up in 2006, EAST is one of several nuclear fusion reactors being worked on, in attempts to produce virtually limitless amounts of clean energy in the same way our own Sun produces energy. Of course, simulating a tiny version of the Sun inside a laboratory is quite a challenge, which is why milestones like this one are so important. Keeping ultra-hot plasma stable for extended periods of time is crucial to the success of EAST, and the new 1,066-second record smashes the previous one of 403 seconds for these plasma conditions. The breakthrough was achieved by researchers at the Institute of Plasma Physics (ASIPP) and the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS), both part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). "A fusion device must achieve stable operation at high efficiency for thousands of seconds to enable the self-sustaining circulation of plasma, which is critical for the continuous power generation of future fusion plants," says nuclear physicist Song Yuntao from the Institute of Plasma Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. While China hasn't shared a lot of detail about the conditions for this 1,066-second achievement, the researchers say their heating system has doubled in power through recent innovations – so it can now reach the equivalent of 140,000 microwave ovens being switched on at once. Since it first went online, the EAST team has made steady progress in increasing the temperature and the stability of the plasma at the core of the machine. It uses what's known as high-confinement plasma, essentially a better way of trapping the gas. Tokamak (donut-shaped) reactors like this one use plasma and magnetic fields to create the conditions to smash together hydrogen atoms at incredible speeds and under intense pressure, which then releases huge amounts of energy. We're still a long way off getting a fully functioning nuclear fusion reactor that can connect to power grids, but every step forward in the technology is encouraging – and adds to the evidence that this may one day be a viable power source. So what's next? Work is already underway on the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in the south of France, which promises to be the largest fusion reactor yet – and one that should be capable of breaking even more records. Earth's Magnetic North Pole Is Officially Moving – Scientists Just Updated Its Location This Is Why You Can't Hula Hoop, According to Science Eerie Light Seen in The Sky May Be a New Phenomenon, Scientists Say
Yahoo
28-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
China Breaks Nuclear Fusion Record, Again
Chinese researchers from the Institute of Plasma Physics (ASIPP) at the Hefei Institute of Physical Science have managed to sustain a nuclear fusion reaction at a temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius for 1,066 seconds, breaking their previous record of 403 seconds they set in April 2023. The achievement by China's Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) marks yet another milestone in the country's quest to win the ongoing nuclear fusion race among China, the United States, Japan, South Korea and the European Union. It's been seven decades ever since scientists started working on nuclear fusion technology, with the allure of almost limitless clean energy proving too powerful to resist. The U.S. was among the world's first countries to bet big on this futuristic gambit, working on fusion research in earnest since the early 1950s with China's foray coming much later. However, China has been making rapid progress over the past decade, and now owns more fusion patents than any other country according to industry data published by Nikkei. Further, Beijing is pumping in ~$1.5 billion annually into fusion research, according to Jean Paul Allain, who leads the US Energy Department's Office of Fusion Energy Sciences, nearly double Washington's fusion tab at $800 million a year. 'To me, what's more important than the number, it's actually how fast they're doing this,' Allain told CNN. Even more alarming is the fact that a small, relatively unknown Chinese fusion startup has been able to achieve what even France-based International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), funded and run by seven countries since 2006, has been unable to pull off. Last year, Shanghai-based Energy Singularity effectively completed the engineering feasibility verification of high-temperature superconducting for its Honghuang 70 (HH70) tokamak device, giving China a first-mover advantage in the critical field of high-temperature superconducting magnetic confinement fusion. Energy Singularity has also become the world's first commercial company to build and operate an all-superconducting tokamak."The design work of the device began in March 2022, and the overall installation was completed by the end of February this year, setting the fastest record for the research and construction of superconducting tokamak devices worldwide," Yang Zhao, Energy Singularity's Chief Executive Officer, has revealed. So, how did this little-known Chinese company manage to pull off in two years what ITER has failed to achieve in nearly two decades? According to Yang, using high-temperature superconducting materials can reduce the volume of a device to about 2 percent of that of traditional low-temperature superconducting devices, allowing the construction period of the device to be shortened from ~ 30 years to just 3-4 years. According to Yang, the company owns independent intellectual property rights of HH70, with a domestication rate of over 96 percent, adding that all of the device's magnet systems are constructed using high-temperature superconducting materials. Despite its commendable success, Energy Singularity is not resting on its laurels, with Yang revealing the company plans to complete the next generation high magnetic field high-temperature superconducting tokamak device dubbed HH170 with a deuterium-tritium equivalent energy gain (Q) greater than 10 by 2027. In nuclear fusion parlance, the Q value reflects the energy efficiency of the fusion reactor, that is, the ratio of the energy generated by the device to the energy input required to sustain the fusion reaction. Q values greater than 1 means the reactor generates more energy than what it consumes, which is essentially what fusion research has been trying to achieve in a commercial reactor for decades. Currently, the greatest Q factor that scientists have achieved is just 1.53. Big Spending Energy Singularity has so far received about $112 million in private investment. In contrast, Charles Seife, director of the Arthur L. Carter Institute of Journalism at New York University, estimates that ITER project costs have surpassed €20 billion ($21.8 billion), more than four times the original budget of €5 billion (then $5.5 billion) and nearly a decade late from its 2016 delivery date. That said, Energy Singularity is not the only fusion startup that's pursuing small reactor designs. Deven, Massachusetts-based Commonwealth Fusion Systems is collaborating with MIT to build their small fusion reactor. Dubbed Sparc, the reactor is ~1/65th the volume of ITER's reactor. The experimental reactor is expected to generate about 100 MW of heat energy in pulses of about 10 seconds - bursts big enough to power a small city. Small reactors are hardly unique to the nuclear fusion sector. The Biden administration was a strong proponent of Small Modular Reactors (SMR) that have been making waves in the nuclear fission space. Four years ago, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved Centrus Energy Corp.'s (NYSE:LEU) request to make High Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) at its enrichment facility in Piketon, Ohio, becoming the first company in the western world outside Russia to do so. Applications for HALEU are currently limited to research reactors and medical isotope production; however, HALEU will be needed for more than half of the SMRs currently in development across the globe. HALEU is only currently available from TENEX, a Rosatom subsidiary By Alex Kimani for More Top Reads From this article on
