How China’s leading the world in nuclear fusion research
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Skull and Bones
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Yes, maybe a decade or two. But the promises it holds is immense.
That Guy
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Probably longer. I'd say we wont see anything until at least 2050-60
Skull and Bones
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That was the estimate done by the scientists of European Nuclear Commission, taking into account that net positive energy fusion will happen sometimes around 2025, but net positive fusion happened in 2015. The path of scientific breakthrough and achievement is never linear, its exponential.
I'd like to congratulate my Chinese brothers for this remarkable feat. I believe we can sustain nuclear fusion for 1 hour by 2022 on a smaller scale, and by 2030, we should see commercial roll out of operational fusion reactors. I'm not accounting the advancement in room temperature super conductors into this equation.
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faithfulguy
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Net positive fusion was achieved in the US in 2013.
thepakistani
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Great
Its future
Every country is trying to break inn this technology
I wish and think Pakistan too
On taka mock.
That Guy
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I meant commercial reactors. I seriously doubt that we'll see economically viable reactors before 2050.
Stannis Baratheon
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Following the first successful test of the Wendelstein X-7 Stellarator-extremely sophisticated nuclear reactor in Germany-the Chinese have accomplished a wildly impressive in one of their reactors. According to the South China Morning Post, China's Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) was able to sustain 90 million Fahrenheit plasma (50 million Kelvin) for 102 seconds. For context, the center of the sun is thought to be only about a third as hot.
Unlike the mind-bendingly complex supercomputer-optimized shape of the X-7 Stellerator, China's EAST is torus-shaped, like a donut, and uses magnetic field to keep its plasma fields in check. At a glance, the most jaw-dropping part of its most recent test is seems to be the temperature-hotter than the sun. But in actuality, other fusion experiments have reached up into the billions of degrees and ion colliders like the LHC have been known to reach into the trillions.
The really important part is how long the reactor was able to maintain that plasma. Keeping plasma around and under control for a long enough time is one of the chief barriers to practical nuclear fusion. The Wendelstein X-7 Stellerator's first successful test was only a fraction of a second, though the team behind it hopes to be able to extend that out to a whopping 30 minutes, citing the Stellerator's much calmer operation. It was much, much harder to build than China's Soviet-designed EAST, but should eventually prove easier to operate.
In the meantime, however, EAST's feat is a true triumph that places it on the leading edge of the nuclear fusion race. Other reactors of its design have a hard time maintaining plasma of this temperature for 20 seconds before a reactor meltdown starts to be a concern, much less a minute and 42.
Researchers from EAST tell the South China Morning Post that their experimental data may prove useful in the development of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) which is currently being built in France. That project has the lofty goal of generating 500 megawatts through fusion power for 400 seconds. That sort of success might still be way off in the distance, but we are certainly taking steps towards it.
Chinese Fusion Reactor Sustains 90 Million Degree Plasma Blast for Over 100 Seconds
Unlike the mind-bendingly complex supercomputer-optimized shape of the X-7 Stellerator, China's EAST is torus-shaped, like a donut, and uses magnetic field to keep its plasma fields in check. At a glance, the most jaw-dropping part of its most recent test is seems to be the temperature-hotter than the sun. But in actuality, other fusion experiments have reached up into the billions of degrees and ion colliders like the LHC have been known to reach into the trillions.
The really important part is how long the reactor was able to maintain that plasma. Keeping plasma around and under control for a long enough time is one of the chief barriers to practical nuclear fusion. The Wendelstein X-7 Stellerator's first successful test was only a fraction of a second, though the team behind it hopes to be able to extend that out to a whopping 30 minutes, citing the Stellerator's much calmer operation. It was much, much harder to build than China's Soviet-designed EAST, but should eventually prove easier to operate.
In the meantime, however, EAST's feat is a true triumph that places it on the leading edge of the nuclear fusion race. Other reactors of its design have a hard time maintaining plasma of this temperature for 20 seconds before a reactor meltdown starts to be a concern, much less a minute and 42.
Researchers from EAST tell the South China Morning Post that their experimental data may prove useful in the development of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) which is currently being built in France. That project has the lofty goal of generating 500 megawatts through fusion power for 400 seconds. That sort of success might still be way off in the distance, but we are certainly taking steps towards it.
Chinese Fusion Reactor Sustains 90 Million Degree Plasma Blast for Over 100 Seconds
Stannis Baratheon
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DAMN, I accidentally posted it here. Can the admins move it to China section?
onebyone
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http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2016/11/chinas-experimental-nuclear-fusion.html
In 2012 EAST physics experiment has created 32 seconds high binding mode world record. In recent years, EAST has completed the upgrade of auxiliary heating, tungsten divertor plasma physics, diagnosis system, overcome the problem of the key technology of heating and current drive, distributed parameter measurement, in-depth study and solve a series of problems of physical radio wave coupling, high confinement plasma stability control, under the condition of low momentum heating and current drive for transport, and laid a solid foundation for long pulse steady high confinement mode plasma.
The EAST fusion reactor is run by the Institute of Plasma Physics in Hefei, which aims for plasma pulses lasting up to 1,000 seconds.
Popular Science had reported in Fegruary, 2016 that the same experimental fusion reactor had managed to sustain plasma at temperatures of over 90 million degrees for 102 seconds, according to an article published in the South China Morning Post. The previous success was a different mode of plasma.
In 2012 EAST physics experiment has created 32 seconds high binding mode world record. In recent years, EAST has completed the upgrade of auxiliary heating, tungsten divertor plasma physics, diagnosis system, overcome the problem of the key technology of heating and current drive, distributed parameter measurement, in-depth study and solve a series of problems of physical radio wave coupling, high confinement plasma stability control, under the condition of low momentum heating and current drive for transport, and laid a solid foundation for long pulse steady high confinement mode plasma.
The EAST fusion reactor is run by the Institute of Plasma Physics in Hefei, which aims for plasma pulses lasting up to 1,000 seconds.
Popular Science had reported in Fegruary, 2016 that the same experimental fusion reactor had managed to sustain plasma at temperatures of over 90 million degrees for 102 seconds, according to an article published in the South China Morning Post. The previous success was a different mode of plasma.
Nan Yang
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How China’s leading the world in nuclear fusion research
Chinese experiment likened to a dressage event rather than riding a bucking bronco
STEPHEN CHEN
BINGLIN.CHEN@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 08 December, 2016, 8:02am
On a quiet, scenic peninsula jutting out into Hefei’s Dongpu Reservoir, physicists recently set a world record, creating hydrogen plasma, hotter than the core of the sun, that burned steadily for more than a minute.
The nuclear fusion researchers kept the ionised gas burning steadily for twice as long as the previous record, set four years ago at the same reactor on Science Island, home to some of China’s largest research facilities.
Professor Luo Guangnan, deputy director of the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) facility in Anhui’s provincial capital said some previous fusion experiments had lasted for more than 100 seconds, but they were like “like riding a bucking bronco”, with plasma that was volatile and difficult to control.
However, the experiment conducted at EAST in August was more like a dressage event, with the plasma tamed in a high-performance steady state, known as H-mode, in a donut-shaped chamber shielded by a extremely strong electromagnetic field.
“It is a milestone event, a confidence boost for humanity to harness energy from fusion,” Luo told the South China Morning Post.
Physicists view H-mode as an optimal working scenario for a future fusion power plant, and the one-minute breakthrough owed a great deal to the Chinese government’s heavy investment on fusion research in recent years.
While still a long way short of the duration required to make commercialisation of the technology possible – which would be measured in decades, not minutes – scientists say the breakthrough shows the pace of development on fusion research in China is leaving other nations in the dust.
It could also help accelerate government approval of construction of the world’s first fusion power plant, the proposed Chinese Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR).
Fusion occurs when two hydrogen nuclei merge to form an atom of helium. During the process, a small amount of mass is converted into an enormous amount of heat. The challenge is to bring that energy under control.
Many fusion research facilities have been set up around the world in attempts to solve the fusion-control problem, with the largest facility under construction, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in France, expected to fire its first pulse of plasma by 2025.
But all such facilities are relatively primitive, with none able to turn fusion power to electricity.
The CFETR proposal sees the reactor going into operation in 2030, generating 200 megawatts of power initially, before an upgrade in the following decade that would ramp up output to around a gigawatt, more than is produced by each of the commercial fission reactors at Daya Bay.
More.....
http://m.scmp.com/news/china/article/2044428/how-chinas-leading-world-nuclear-fusion-research
Chinese experiment likened to a dressage event rather than riding a bucking bronco
STEPHEN CHEN
BINGLIN.CHEN@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 08 December, 2016, 8:02am
On a quiet, scenic peninsula jutting out into Hefei’s Dongpu Reservoir, physicists recently set a world record, creating hydrogen plasma, hotter than the core of the sun, that burned steadily for more than a minute.
The nuclear fusion researchers kept the ionised gas burning steadily for twice as long as the previous record, set four years ago at the same reactor on Science Island, home to some of China’s largest research facilities.
Professor Luo Guangnan, deputy director of the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) facility in Anhui’s provincial capital said some previous fusion experiments had lasted for more than 100 seconds, but they were like “like riding a bucking bronco”, with plasma that was volatile and difficult to control.
However, the experiment conducted at EAST in August was more like a dressage event, with the plasma tamed in a high-performance steady state, known as H-mode, in a donut-shaped chamber shielded by a extremely strong electromagnetic field.
“It is a milestone event, a confidence boost for humanity to harness energy from fusion,” Luo told the South China Morning Post.
Physicists view H-mode as an optimal working scenario for a future fusion power plant, and the one-minute breakthrough owed a great deal to the Chinese government’s heavy investment on fusion research in recent years.
While still a long way short of the duration required to make commercialisation of the technology possible – which would be measured in decades, not minutes – scientists say the breakthrough shows the pace of development on fusion research in China is leaving other nations in the dust.
It could also help accelerate government approval of construction of the world’s first fusion power plant, the proposed Chinese Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR).
Fusion occurs when two hydrogen nuclei merge to form an atom of helium. During the process, a small amount of mass is converted into an enormous amount of heat. The challenge is to bring that energy under control.
Many fusion research facilities have been set up around the world in attempts to solve the fusion-control problem, with the largest facility under construction, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in France, expected to fire its first pulse of plasma by 2025.
But all such facilities are relatively primitive, with none able to turn fusion power to electricity.
The CFETR proposal sees the reactor going into operation in 2030, generating 200 megawatts of power initially, before an upgrade in the following decade that would ramp up output to around a gigawatt, more than is produced by each of the commercial fission reactors at Daya Bay.
More.....
http://m.scmp.com/news/china/article/2044428/how-chinas-leading-world-nuclear-fusion-research
onebyone
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China acknowledged as global leader in the field and world’s only nation increasing funding into research to draw energy from ‘artificial sun’
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 08 December, 2016, 8:02am
UPDATED : Thursday, 08 December, 2016, 10:48am
On a quiet, scenic peninsula jutting out into Hefei’s Dongpu Reservoir, physicists recently set a world record, creating hydrogen plasma, hotter than the core of the sun, that burned steadily for more than a minute.
The nuclear fusion researchers kept the ionised gas burning steadily for twice as long as the previous record, set four years ago at the same reactor on Science Island, home to some of China’s largest research facilities.
I have a dream, to see a light bulb lit by the power of fusion within my lifetime
LI JIANGANG
Professor Luo Guangnan, deputy director of the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) facility in Anhui’s provincial capital said some previous fusion experiments had lasted for more than 100 seconds, but they were like “like riding a bucking bronco”, with plasma that was volatile and difficult to control.
However, the experiment conducted at EAST in August was more like a dressage event, with the plasma tamed in a high-performance steady state, known as H-mode, in a donut-shaped chamber shielded by a extremely strong electromagnetic field.
“It is a milestone event, a confidence boost for humanity to harness energy from fusion,” Luo told the South China Morning Post.
Physicists view H-mode as an optimal working scenario for a future fusion power plant, and the one-minute breakthrough owed a great deal to the Chinese government’s heavy investment on fusion research in recent years.
While still a long way short of the duration required to make commercialisation of the technology possible – which would be measured in decades, not minutes – scientists say the breakthrough shows the pace of development on fusion research in China is leaving other nations in the dust.
It could also help accelerate government approval of construction of the world’s first fusion power plant, the proposed Chinese Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR).
China fires up Hineg generator in Hefei city with goal of making world’s strongest neutron beam using nuclear fusion technology
Fusion occurs when two hydrogen nuclei merge to form an atom of helium. During the process, a small amount of mass is converted into an enormous amount of heat. The challenge is to bring that energy under control.
Many fusion research facilities have been set up around the world in attempts to solve the fusion-control problem, with the largest facility under construction, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in France, expected to fire its first pulse of plasma by 2025.
But all such facilities are relatively primitive, with none able to turn fusion power to electricity.
The CFETR proposal sees the reactor going into operation in 2030, generating 200 megawatts of power initially, before an upgrade in the following decade that would ramp up output to around a gigawatt, more than is produced by each of the commercial fission reactors at Daya Bay.
“It is hoped that the proposal for CFETR construction can be approved by the government within the next five years,” Wan Yuanxi, a leading fusion research scientist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told an international fusion science conference in Kyoto, Japan, last month.
Luo, who is also involved in the CFETR project, said China’s commitment to fusion research stood out when compared to other countries.
“China is the only nation in the world increasing its budget for fusion research,” he said. “The funding in Europe has been dwindling, a proposal for the construction of new research facilities in the US was rejected by Congress, and progress in Japan has also stagnated.”
New dawn: Chinese scientists move step closer to creating ‘artificial sun’ in quest for limitless energy via nuclear fusion
The one-minute H-mode breakthrough at EAST was made possible by financial support from the central government, which allowed the EAST team to undertake a series of major upgrades in the past few years.
In contrast, the Alcator C-Mod tokamak nuclear fusion reactor at America’s Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which set many world records in 23 years of service, shut down in September due to federal government budget cuts in the United States. It set its last world record, for the highest plasma pressure, on its final day of operation.
The funding and opportunities available in China have attracted fusion scientists from around the world, eager to solve the world’s energy shortage and environmental pollution problems once and for all.
Many American researchers were involved in EAST’s one-minute H-mode experiment.
“In each of our experiments in recent years, the number of foreign participants easily exceeded 100,” Luo said, acknowledging that the progress in China would not have been so fast without a collective effort by international community.
The rapid pace of development in China has, however, led to concerns in other countries, worried that if China is the first to commercialise fusion technology it will gain the upper hand economically and geopolitically.
There was even discussion among the other six ITER members – Japan, South Korea, Russia, the US, India and the European Union – about kicking China out of the project because of concerns it would use knowledge gained from ITER to accelerate construction of CFETR.
Blazing at 1 million degrees Celsius, a possible milestone in nuclear fusion quest
But ITER, plagued by years of delay and way over budget, would not survive without China’s support, and the country’s influence in the project has grown significantly in recent years. The number of ITER employees from China has gone from last place among its seven members to second, trailing only the EU.
Professor Steven Cowley, president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and former head of Britain’s Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, said the best choice for other countries was to embrace, and even support, China’s leadership in fusion research.
“I think that CFETR is a bold and important move – not just for China but for the world,” Cowley said. “It will not undermine ITER but rather move on rapidly from ITER towards full commercial fusion power.
“If China is first that is great since it will really benefit everyone. I would like to see us all help China to accelerate the pace of fusion development. Certainly the EU would also like to be first to commercial fusion power – but the most important thing is that someone does it as soon as possible.”
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 08 December, 2016, 8:02am
UPDATED : Thursday, 08 December, 2016, 10:48am
On a quiet, scenic peninsula jutting out into Hefei’s Dongpu Reservoir, physicists recently set a world record, creating hydrogen plasma, hotter than the core of the sun, that burned steadily for more than a minute.
The nuclear fusion researchers kept the ionised gas burning steadily for twice as long as the previous record, set four years ago at the same reactor on Science Island, home to some of China’s largest research facilities.
I have a dream, to see a light bulb lit by the power of fusion within my lifetime
LI JIANGANG
Professor Luo Guangnan, deputy director of the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) facility in Anhui’s provincial capital said some previous fusion experiments had lasted for more than 100 seconds, but they were like “like riding a bucking bronco”, with plasma that was volatile and difficult to control.
However, the experiment conducted at EAST in August was more like a dressage event, with the plasma tamed in a high-performance steady state, known as H-mode, in a donut-shaped chamber shielded by a extremely strong electromagnetic field.
“It is a milestone event, a confidence boost for humanity to harness energy from fusion,” Luo told the South China Morning Post.
Physicists view H-mode as an optimal working scenario for a future fusion power plant, and the one-minute breakthrough owed a great deal to the Chinese government’s heavy investment on fusion research in recent years.
While still a long way short of the duration required to make commercialisation of the technology possible – which would be measured in decades, not minutes – scientists say the breakthrough shows the pace of development on fusion research in China is leaving other nations in the dust.
It could also help accelerate government approval of construction of the world’s first fusion power plant, the proposed Chinese Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR).
China fires up Hineg generator in Hefei city with goal of making world’s strongest neutron beam using nuclear fusion technology
Fusion occurs when two hydrogen nuclei merge to form an atom of helium. During the process, a small amount of mass is converted into an enormous amount of heat. The challenge is to bring that energy under control.
Many fusion research facilities have been set up around the world in attempts to solve the fusion-control problem, with the largest facility under construction, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in France, expected to fire its first pulse of plasma by 2025.
But all such facilities are relatively primitive, with none able to turn fusion power to electricity.
The CFETR proposal sees the reactor going into operation in 2030, generating 200 megawatts of power initially, before an upgrade in the following decade that would ramp up output to around a gigawatt, more than is produced by each of the commercial fission reactors at Daya Bay.
“It is hoped that the proposal for CFETR construction can be approved by the government within the next five years,” Wan Yuanxi, a leading fusion research scientist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told an international fusion science conference in Kyoto, Japan, last month.
Luo, who is also involved in the CFETR project, said China’s commitment to fusion research stood out when compared to other countries.
“China is the only nation in the world increasing its budget for fusion research,” he said. “The funding in Europe has been dwindling, a proposal for the construction of new research facilities in the US was rejected by Congress, and progress in Japan has also stagnated.”
New dawn: Chinese scientists move step closer to creating ‘artificial sun’ in quest for limitless energy via nuclear fusion
The one-minute H-mode breakthrough at EAST was made possible by financial support from the central government, which allowed the EAST team to undertake a series of major upgrades in the past few years.
In contrast, the Alcator C-Mod tokamak nuclear fusion reactor at America’s Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which set many world records in 23 years of service, shut down in September due to federal government budget cuts in the United States. It set its last world record, for the highest plasma pressure, on its final day of operation.
The funding and opportunities available in China have attracted fusion scientists from around the world, eager to solve the world’s energy shortage and environmental pollution problems once and for all.
Many American researchers were involved in EAST’s one-minute H-mode experiment.
“In each of our experiments in recent years, the number of foreign participants easily exceeded 100,” Luo said, acknowledging that the progress in China would not have been so fast without a collective effort by international community.
The rapid pace of development in China has, however, led to concerns in other countries, worried that if China is the first to commercialise fusion technology it will gain the upper hand economically and geopolitically.
There was even discussion among the other six ITER members – Japan, South Korea, Russia, the US, India and the European Union – about kicking China out of the project because of concerns it would use knowledge gained from ITER to accelerate construction of CFETR.
Blazing at 1 million degrees Celsius, a possible milestone in nuclear fusion quest
But ITER, plagued by years of delay and way over budget, would not survive without China’s support, and the country’s influence in the project has grown significantly in recent years. The number of ITER employees from China has gone from last place among its seven members to second, trailing only the EU.
Professor Steven Cowley, president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and former head of Britain’s Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, said the best choice for other countries was to embrace, and even support, China’s leadership in fusion research.
“I think that CFETR is a bold and important move – not just for China but for the world,” Cowley said. “It will not undermine ITER but rather move on rapidly from ITER towards full commercial fusion power.
“If China is first that is great since it will really benefit everyone. I would like to see us all help China to accelerate the pace of fusion development. Certainly the EU would also like to be first to commercial fusion power – but the most important thing is that someone does it as soon as possible.”
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