Scientists have just set a new global record for high-temperature stable plasma with the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) device, reaching ion temperatures above 100 million degrees Celsius (180 million degrees Fahrenheit) for a period of 20 seconds.
Known as Korea’s “artificial sun”, KSTAR uses magnetic fields to generate and stabilize ultra-hot plasma, with the ultimate goal of realizing nuclear fusion power – a clean energy source that could be endless that could transform the way we power our lives. , if we can make it work as expected.
Prior to this, 100 million steps have not been broken for more than 10 seconds, so it is a major improvement on previous efforts – even though there is still a long way to go before we can fully excavate other energy sources. . At this point, nuclear fusion power is still a potential, not a certainty.
The KSTAR. (Korea Fusion Power Institute)
“The technologies required for long-distance 100 million-degree plasma operations are the key to realizing fusion energy,” says Si-Woo Yoon nuclear physics director of the KSTAR Research Center at the Korea Fusion Power Institute (KFE). ).
“KSTAR’s success in maintaining the high-temperature plasma for 20 seconds will be an important turning point in the race to acquire the technologies for long-range high-performance plasma activity, an essential part of the future commercial nuclear fusion reactor . “
A key way to jump to 20 seconds was to update the Internal Transport Barrier (ITB) procedures within the KSTAR. Scientists do not fully understand these methods, but at the simplest level they help control the limitation and stability of the nuclear fusion reaction.
The KSTAR is a tokamak-style reactor, similar to the one that recently went online in China, combining atomic nuclei to create these huge amounts of energy (as opposed to nuclear cooling that is being used in power plants, which separate atomic nuclei from each other).
While the scientific work required to achieve this is complex, progress has been steady. KSTAR first broke the 100 million-degree limit in 2018, and in 2019 managed to maintain the temperature for 8 seconds. Now, that has more than doubled.
“The success of KSTAR testing in long-range, high-temperature operation by overcoming some of the disadvantages of ITB methods takes us one step closer to the development of technologies for realizing nuclear fusion energy,” says nuclear physics. Yong-Su Na, from Seoul National University (SNU).
Fusion devices like KSTAR use hydrogen isotopes to create a plasma state where ions and electrons are separated, ready for heating – the same fusion reactions that occur on the Sun, and therefore the nickname given to these reactors.
So far, it has been a challenge to maintain a high enough temperature for long enough for the technology to become viable. Scientists need to break more records like this so that nuclear smelting acts as a source of energy – running away a little more than seawater (a source of hydrogen isotopes) and removing very little waste. .
Despite the work ahead in making these reactors produce more energy than they consume, progress has been encouraging. By 2025, engineers at KSTAR want to have exceeded the 100 million-degree mark for a time of 300 seconds.
“The ion temperature of 100 million-degrees achieved by enabling efficient heart plasma heating for a period of time showed the unique capacity of the KSTAR superconducting device, and will be recognized as a solid foundation for high-performance state fusion plasmas,” he said. nuclear. physics Young-Seok Park, from Columbia University.
The results of the test have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed paper, but are being shared at the 2021 IAEA Fusion Energy Conference.