Beijing
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BEIJING - Scientists on Thursday carried out China's first successful test of an experimental fusion reactor, powered by the process that fuels the sun, a research institute spokeswoman said.
China, the United States and other governments are pursuing fusion research in hopes that it could become a clean, potentially limitless energy source. Fusion produces little radioactive waste, unlike fission, which powers conventional nuclear reactors. Beijing is eager for advances, both for national prestige and to reduce its soaring consumption of imported oil and dirty coal. The test by the government's Institute of Plasma Physics was carried out on a Tokamak fusion device in the eastern city of Hefei, said Cheng Yan, a spokeswoman at the institute. Cheng said the test was considered a success because the reactor produced plasma, a hot cloud of supercharged particles. She wouldn't give other details. "This represents a step for humankind in the study of nuclear reaction," she said. U.S. and other scientists have been experimenting with fusion for decades but it has yet to be developed into a viable energy alternative. "I think it is a considerable step ahead for China," said Karl Heinz Finken, a senior scientist at the Institute for Plasma Physics in Juelich, Germany, who had no role in the Chinese research.
"China is speeding up with the development of nuclear fusion and I think at the moment they are making considerable progress," he said. The Chinese facility is similar to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER, being built by a seven-nation consortium in Cadarache in southern France, according to state media. That reactor is due to be completed in 2015. China is a partner in the ITER reactor, along with the European Union, the United States, Japan, Russia, India and South Korea. A Tokamak reactor uses a doughnut-shaped magnetic field to contain the hot gas. Several countries have produced plasma using a Tokamak or similar device, said Gabriel Marbach, deputy head of fusion research at the ITER facility. He said producing plasma was only one step toward the fusion that ITER aims to perform, and that the project could be helped by the Chinese experiments. "It was important for China to show that it is part of the club, and that adds value to its participation in ITER," Marbach said. "That is not to say that it is at the level of the Europeans or Americans," he said. However, he added, "We are rather admiring of the Chinese for conducting this test. It was conducted well, and they constructed (the machine) rather quickly." China is the world's No. 2 oil consumer and its No. 3 importer, consuming at least 3.5 million barrels of foreign oil per day last year. China plans to build dozens of nuclear power plants and is trying to promote use of cleaner alternative energy sources such as natural gas, wind power and methanol made from corn. China sucessfully tests new thermonuclear fusion reactor
Chinese scientists on Thursday successfully conducted their first test of an experimental thermonuclear fusion reactor, which replicates the energy generating process of the sun. The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) fusion reactor, nicknamed "artificial sun", was tested at the Institute of Plasma Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Hefei, capital city of east China's Anhui Province.
During the experiment, deuterium and tritium atoms were forced together at a temperature of 100 million Celsius. "At that temperature, the super heated plasma, which is neither a gas, a liquid nor a solid, should begin to give off its own energy," scientists explained. The first tests lasted nearly three seconds, and generated an electrical current of 200 kiloamperes, Wan Yuanxi, general manager of EAST, told Xinhua. The experiments were continuing, he said. The device is planned to eventually create a plasma lasting 1,000 consecutive seconds, the longest a fusion reactor has ever run. Wan said the deuterium extracted from one liter of seawater could produce energy equivalent to that generated by burning 300 liters of gasoline thanks to the fusion technology. If the thermonuclear fusion technology is commercialized, it may provide energy to mankind for more than 100 million years, Wan said. Li Jiangang, director of the Institute of Plasma Physics, said the results of the test met the expectations of scientists and signified a great breakthrough in the research of thermonuclear fusion. "That means we lead all our competitors by at least a decade," said Li. "The breakthrough will make it possible for mankind to harness a safe, clean and endless source of energy." EAST is an upgrade of China's first-generation Tokamak device and the first of its kind in operation in the world, said Chinese scientists. The Institute of Plasma Physics spent eight years and 200 million yuan (25 million U.S. dollars) on building the experimental reactor. The columniform device, made with special stainless steel, is about 12 meters high and weighs 400 tons. Compared with similar devices in other countries, EAST cost the least money and time to be built and is the first in operation, said Li. EAST would be the most advanced thermonuclear fusion reactor in the world for the next ten years, said Dr. Gary Jackson from General Atomics of the United States, who participated in the research. Unlike traditional nuclear fission reactors, which split atoms to create energy and produce dangerous radioactive waste, EAST uses nuclear fusion to compress atoms at extremely high temperatures to generate energy that would produce very little pollution. Scientists theorize that a fully functional fusion reactor would provide cheaper, safer, cleaner and endless energy and reduce the world's dependence on fossil fuels. EAST is part of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), which is the largest international program dedicated to experiments in thermonuclear fusion. In 2003, China joined the 4.6-billion-euro ITER which was originally initiated by the United States and Russia. The first operation of ITER might be in 2016.
Source: Xinhua
China, the United States and other governments are pursuing fusion research in hopes that it could become a clean, potentially limitless energy source. Fusion produces little radioactive waste, unlike fission, which powers conventional nuclear reactors. Beijing is eager for advances, both for national prestige and to reduce its soaring consumption of imported oil and dirty coal. The test by the government's Institute of Plasma Physics was carried out on a Tokamak fusion device in the eastern city of Hefei, said Cheng Yan, a spokeswoman at the institute. Cheng said the test was considered a success because the reactor produced plasma, a hot cloud of supercharged particles. She wouldn't give other details. "This represents a step for humankind in the study of nuclear reaction," she said. U.S. and other scientists have been experimenting with fusion for decades but it has yet to be developed into a viable energy alternative. "I think it is a considerable step ahead for China," said Karl Heinz Finken, a senior scientist at the Institute for Plasma Physics in Juelich, Germany, who had no role in the Chinese research.
"China is speeding up with the development of nuclear fusion and I think at the moment they are making considerable progress," he said. The Chinese facility is similar to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER, being built by a seven-nation consortium in Cadarache in southern France, according to state media. That reactor is due to be completed in 2015. China is a partner in the ITER reactor, along with the European Union, the United States, Japan, Russia, India and South Korea. A Tokamak reactor uses a doughnut-shaped magnetic field to contain the hot gas. Several countries have produced plasma using a Tokamak or similar device, said Gabriel Marbach, deputy head of fusion research at the ITER facility. He said producing plasma was only one step toward the fusion that ITER aims to perform, and that the project could be helped by the Chinese experiments. "It was important for China to show that it is part of the club, and that adds value to its participation in ITER," Marbach said. "That is not to say that it is at the level of the Europeans or Americans," he said. However, he added, "We are rather admiring of the Chinese for conducting this test. It was conducted well, and they constructed (the machine) rather quickly." China is the world's No. 2 oil consumer and its No. 3 importer, consuming at least 3.5 million barrels of foreign oil per day last year. China plans to build dozens of nuclear power plants and is trying to promote use of cleaner alternative energy sources such as natural gas, wind power and methanol made from corn. China sucessfully tests new thermonuclear fusion reactor
Chinese scientists on Thursday successfully conducted their first test of an experimental thermonuclear fusion reactor, which replicates the energy generating process of the sun. The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) fusion reactor, nicknamed "artificial sun", was tested at the Institute of Plasma Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Hefei, capital city of east China's Anhui Province.
During the experiment, deuterium and tritium atoms were forced together at a temperature of 100 million Celsius. "At that temperature, the super heated plasma, which is neither a gas, a liquid nor a solid, should begin to give off its own energy," scientists explained. The first tests lasted nearly three seconds, and generated an electrical current of 200 kiloamperes, Wan Yuanxi, general manager of EAST, told Xinhua. The experiments were continuing, he said. The device is planned to eventually create a plasma lasting 1,000 consecutive seconds, the longest a fusion reactor has ever run. Wan said the deuterium extracted from one liter of seawater could produce energy equivalent to that generated by burning 300 liters of gasoline thanks to the fusion technology. If the thermonuclear fusion technology is commercialized, it may provide energy to mankind for more than 100 million years, Wan said. Li Jiangang, director of the Institute of Plasma Physics, said the results of the test met the expectations of scientists and signified a great breakthrough in the research of thermonuclear fusion. "That means we lead all our competitors by at least a decade," said Li. "The breakthrough will make it possible for mankind to harness a safe, clean and endless source of energy." EAST is an upgrade of China's first-generation Tokamak device and the first of its kind in operation in the world, said Chinese scientists. The Institute of Plasma Physics spent eight years and 200 million yuan (25 million U.S. dollars) on building the experimental reactor. The columniform device, made with special stainless steel, is about 12 meters high and weighs 400 tons. Compared with similar devices in other countries, EAST cost the least money and time to be built and is the first in operation, said Li. EAST would be the most advanced thermonuclear fusion reactor in the world for the next ten years, said Dr. Gary Jackson from General Atomics of the United States, who participated in the research. Unlike traditional nuclear fission reactors, which split atoms to create energy and produce dangerous radioactive waste, EAST uses nuclear fusion to compress atoms at extremely high temperatures to generate energy that would produce very little pollution. Scientists theorize that a fully functional fusion reactor would provide cheaper, safer, cleaner and endless energy and reduce the world's dependence on fossil fuels. EAST is part of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), which is the largest international program dedicated to experiments in thermonuclear fusion. In 2003, China joined the 4.6-billion-euro ITER which was originally initiated by the United States and Russia. The first operation of ITER might be in 2016.
Source: Xinhua
