Cosmos
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By Cosmos
A nuclear fusion machine in southern France has maintained a plasma for more than 22 minutes, beating the previous world record by nearly 5 minutes.
Such machines are sometimes referred to “artificial suns” because they mimic the nuclear fusion process which powers stars in their cores. It is believed that stable nuclear fusion on Earth could lead to a renewable and extremely powerful energy source.
Nuclear fusion may be a crucial technology in bids to stop carbon-emitting energy production.
The record-breaking fusion reactor is run by the French government-funded research organisation, the Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA).
CEA’s machine WEST (Tungsten Environment in Steady-state Tokamak) uses a common doughnut structure referred to as a tokamak which encases the plasma in a very strong magnetic field. It is this plasma where the fusion process takes place.
Infrastructure required to produce energy on a large scale will likely take decades more research to design and develop.
The trouble is recreating the kinds of conditions of extreme heat and pressure present in a stellar core on Earth. For nuclear fusion to be a viable new energy source, plasmas need to be maintained for long periods of time.
Last month, China’s EAST (Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak) fusion machine achieved a plasma confined in a steady state for 1,066 seconds. This surpassed the previous record of 403 seconds, also achieved at EAST in 2023.
On February 12, WEST set a new world record of 1,337 seconds.
Both EAST and WEST are experimental machines that are being developed by a global team of researchers involved in building the fusion reactor ITER, also being constructed in France.
Plasma is naturally unstable. The ultimate goal is to keep the plasma confined in the machine while also reducing the damaging effects of the plasma’s radiation on the internal structure of the reactor.
“WEST has achieved a new key technological milestone by maintaining hydrogen plasma for more than 20 minutes through the injection of 2 MW of heating power,” says Anne-Isabelle Etienvre, Director of Fundamental Research at CEA.
“Experiments will continue with increased power,” Etienvre adds.
