China has been at the forefront of scientific innovative technology for years. The country expects to spend at least $1 trillion on an “artificial sun” this year. In December 2020, China’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) is considered the largest and most progressive nuclear fusion experimental research device. The country has flourished by completing its first test of the nuclear fusion reactor. The nuclear fusion reactor is also known as the artificial sun. The nuclear fusion reactor impersonates the energy-generation process of the Sun. Its up-and-coming technology can produce excessive amounts of clean energy with minor waste products.
“China’s “artificial sun” has set a new world record after superheating a loop of plasma to temperatures five times hotter than the sun for more than 17 minutes, state media reported,” according to Space.com. Chemists, physicists, and scientists have reluctantly tried to tackle the power of nuclear fusion. This process in which stars ignite for 70 years, by intertwining hydrogen atoms to create helium under intensely large pressures and temperatures. The most important sequence stars can disciple matter into light and heat, bringing about gigantic amounts of energy without generating greenhouse gases or lifelong radioactive waste.
China spends $1 trillion on an artificial sun. “Coal and natural gas are the primary energy sources currently used around the world, but these materials come in limited supply. Nuclear fusion could be the cleanest energy source available because it replicates the sun’s physics by merging atomic nuclei to generate large amounts of energy into electricity,” according to Smithsonian Magazine.
By avoiding the use of fossil fuels there will be no radioactive waste. The artificial sun is a safer alternative to fission nuclear power.
“EAST is expected to cost China more than $1 trillion by the time the experiment finishes running in June, and it is being used to test out technologies for an even bigger fusion project — the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) — that’s currently being built in Marseille, France,” according to Space.com.
The ITER consists of the globe’s most impressive magnet. It is capable of generating a magnetic field 280,000 times as capable as the one around the earth.
There is a total of 35 countries involved in the globe’s largest nuclear reactor. The collaborative effort involves the U.K, China, the European Union, and the United States.
Fake videos have surfaced showing a so-called launch of the artificial sun. However, China’s $1 trillion artificial sun will never be launched, it is a nuclear reactor being built in France.
Written by Lionel Carter
Edited by Cathy Milne-Ware
Sources:
Smithsonian Magazine: China’s Artificial Sun Just Broke a Record for Longest Sustained Nuclear Fusion; by Elizabeth Gamillo
Space.com: China’s $1 trillion ‘artificial sun’ fusion reactor just got five times hotter than the sun; by Ben Turner
Newsweek: Fact Check: Does Video Show China Launching ‘Artificial Sun’ Into Space? By Yevgeny Kuklychev
Featured and Top Image Courtesy of Doug Zwick’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Insert Image Courtesy of Oak Ridge National Lab’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
