A record breaker! What is the significance of a breakthrough in China s artificial sun research?

On May 27, 2020, China's first artificial solar successfully achieved steady-state operation on the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), making breakthroughs in the key technical fields of experimental reactors. This is an important progress made in high-temperature and high-pressure plasma experiments and engineering since China carried out magnetic confinement nuclear fusion experiments in the 70s of the last century. ITER is scheduled to be fully operational in 2023.

The breakthrough achievement of this new progress is the first time that China has achieved steady-state operation and long-life operation on the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), which will make a significant contribution to China's future fusion energy utilization.

Nuclear fusion refers to the violent reaction of hydrogen atoms at high temperature and pressure, it can be said to be energy, and it is the basis of nuclear fusion reactions. A nuclear fusion reaction requires a condition in which the enormous amount of energy is burned from the fuel inside the hydrogen bomb. Therefore, nuclear fusion is one of the most effective and cost-effective technologies for environmental protection in the development of the nuclear industry.

The tokamak was built in the UK and is a critical link in the future magnetic confinement fusion reactor. Tokamaks work on the same principle as other fusion cores, except that they are coupled by a magnetic field between two identical electric fields. The tokamak mainly releases the energy of the strong laser from the particle beam through magnetic confinement, and encapsulates high-power and high-density superconducting materials in the ion stack through the combination of magnetic field and plasma.

This high-temperature plasma requires a strong enough current to be able to generate up to 10 times its own mass.

The fusion device is a device that combines the principle of nuclear fusion reaction with a large-scale artificial solar device to use the huge energy released by the artificial sun to solve the energy problem. Different from ordinary nuclear fusion reactions, nuclear fusion reactions do not have completely indestructible fuels in nature, and their nuclear fuels usually come from around the sun, using hydrogen or deuterium as fuel, and a very small number of them are found in seawater. But this type of fusion reaction must go through a rather lengthy process, in which an uncontrollable event will release enormous energy to eliminate the neutrons and hydrogen produced by the nuclear fission reaction.

The breakthrough progress of China's artificial sun technology has played a role in promoting the relevant development of China, and the million placement points have also become of greater significance.

Achieving this condition is of great significance for China's deep participation in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) and the independent design and operation of fusion reactors.

A record breaker! A breakthrough has been made in the research of artificial suns in China, is the artificial sun fusion or fission? The principle of the sun's luminescence and heat is the nuclear fusion inside the sun, that is, the fusion of 4 hydrogen atoms into one helium atom, and this process releases a huge amount of energy.

According to the principle of solar fusion, scientists have built a nuclear fusion device, so that it can continuously release energy and release light and heat. This device is an artificial sun, using artificial controllable nuclear fusion to imitate the shape of the sun, but there is currently no mature method to control nuclear fusion, and now the longest controllable nuclear fusion time is 102 seconds, maintained by China, and can be plasma discharged at an electron temperature of 50 million degrees. The artificial sun is a fusion device, so it must be controllable.

It's just that at present, both magnetic and inertial constraints are still in the research stage, and they are not completely controllable, so it is still early for commercial use.

With the sustainable development of the country, the problem of insufficient energy self-sufficiency rate in China has become increasingly prominent. For the long-term sustainable development of the social economy, we must replace most of the coal or oil consumption with reliable non-fossil energy sources (such as nuclear fission or nuclear fusion energy, solar energy, wind energy, hydro energy, etc.) as soon as possible. The fusion reaction of two hydrogen nuclei releases nuclear fusion energy, which is the energy source for all stars such as the sun to release light and heat and hydrogen bombs.

Humans have been able to control and use nuclear fission energy, but because it is difficult to bring two light atomic nuclei with positively charged nuclei close together to produce fusion reactions, it will take a long and very arduous research and development process to control and use nuclear fusion energy.

The current breakthrough of one million amperes represents another step forward in the use of controlled nuclear fusion energy. Deuterium-tritium fusion reactions can also release enormous amounts of energy. Deuterium is extremely abundant in seawater.

Fusion energy is an ideal energy source with no pollution, no long-lived radioactive nuclear waste, and unlimited resources. If controlled thermonuclear fusion energy is realized on a large scale, it will fundamentally solve the energy problem of human society. Artificial suns, on the other hand, are much smaller and require artificial power to sustain fusion because they don't have enough gravity.

So in the event of a failure, the fusion will automatically stop, and if the hydrogen is fused, there will be no pollution.

According to the scientific research team of the Southwest Institute of Physics of the Nuclear Industry of China National Nuclear Corporation, on October 19, China's new generation of "artificial sun" scientific research made a breakthrough, and the HL-2M plasma current exceeded 1 million amperes, creating a new record for the operation of China's controllable nuclear fusion device, marking an important step forward in China's nuclear fusion research and development from fusion ignition, ranking among the first phalanx in the world, and the technical level ranks in the forefront of the world. Praise for China's scientific research!

Truth be told, every time I see something with "nuclear.""I have a strong desire to express myself when it comes to the news, because I came out of the nuclear power plant. However, I want to tell you that the principle of power generation in nuclear power plants is "nuclear fission", including the principle of energy release from atomic bombs** is also "nuclear fission". The principle of the "artificial sun" is "nuclear fusion", and it is controllable.

So why is it called an "artificial sun"?

The "artificial sun" essentially refers to a certain energy project, or a certain energy device, the fully superconducting tokamak nuclear fusion experimental device (also known as east). As shown in the figure below:It is a device capable of withstanding 100 million degrees Celsius and nearly 300 degrees Celsius at the same time.

What device can produce such a high level of heat and still withstand it, is there such a way of energy generation and high-temperature resistant materials on earth?

Of course there is, that is, to imitate the sun in the sky. How far is the sun in the sky from our earth? Even the light takes eight minutes to get there, and the speed of the light doesn't need me to popularize science.

At such a long distance, we can perceive the warmth from the sun, and the creatures on the earth also live on the energy radiated by the sun to the earth. Why does the sun produce so much energy? Because the way the sun's energy is released is the principle of nuclear fusion:

The nucleus refers to the atom with a small mass, mainly deuterium, under certain conditions (such as ultra-high temperature and high pressure), only at extremely high temperature and pressure can the electrons outside the nucleus get rid of the shackles of the nucleus, so that the two nuclei can attract each other and collide together, and the nuclei polymerize with each other to generate a new nucleus with heavier mass (such as helium), although the neutron is relatively large, but because the neutron is not charged, it can also escape the shackles of the nucleus and release it in the collision process. The release of a large number of electrons and neutrons is manifested by a huge release of energy.

The reason why our fully superconducting tokamak nuclear fusion experimental device (EAST) can produce a high temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius is because it simulates the "nuclear fusion" energy release principle of the sun.

That's why we call this project (or this experimental device called East) as an "artificial sun".

The artificial sun is nuclear fusion. The so-called "artificial sun" refers to the full use of this scientific principle to build a nuclear fusion device on the earth.

The artificial sun is fusion, which can release a very large amount of power, and it is also the best place for a lot of energy.

A new generation"Artificial sun"The plasma current output can reach more than one megaampere and is currently operating at a speed of more than 1 megaamperere, setting a new record for the operation of a controlled nuclear fusion device in China. This new breakthrough means that in the future the device will be able to operate routinely at plasma currents in excess of 1 milliampere and conduct groundbreaking scientific research, which is of great significance for China's future participation in the International Thermonuclear Reactor (ITER) experiments and the independent design and operation of fusion reactors.

China has invested a lot of resources in the research and development of various high-tech technologies, especially in the field of nuclear fusion, and China has successfully built one with a lifespan of 1000 seconds"Artificial sun", using the country's tokamak fusion experimental device, achieved a fusion discharge of 1,000 seconds, breaking the previous world record of 400 seconds held by Western countries. The world record of 400 seconds and the highest temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius marks a huge breakthrough in China's research on controlled nuclear fusion, which is indeed a major country**. Controlled nuclear fusion artificially controls the process by which two lighter nuclei fuse into one heavier nucleus and release energy.

For many years, many researchers believed that if humans could harvest all the energy released by the sun, then humans would not have to worry about resource depletion, but for humans at this stage, we can't do that, so we have to create one on Earth"Artificial sun"。The principle is very similar to the nuclear fusion process inside the sun, and since its main raw material comes from seawater, it is also purely environmentally friendly and inexhaustible.

According to the R&D department, our"Artificial sun"It will be ready for commercial use around 2050, which means another 30 years or so. Of course, these are just **, because there is another key to fusion energy, and that is"Controllability"。If humanity cannot develop controlled nuclear fusion, it will not be possible to make it the ultimate source of energy for mankind.

The experimental results obtained so far are milestones, marking that the internationally advanced neutral beam injection heating system developed by China has basically overcome major technical problems.

As an internationally important long-pulse nuclear fusion experimental platform, the EAST superconducting tokamak has achieved a breakthrough of 100 seconds in the high-limit discharge time, laying a solid technical foundation for the construction of China's next-generation nuclear fusion device and the development and utilization of international nuclear fusion clean energy. The artificial sun is a process of imitation. <>

At present, the orderly use of nuclear energy in human nuclear power plants is a nuclear fission process – from heavier nuclei to lighter nuclei, from which the released energy is obtained. Light nuclear fusion releases several times more energy per unit mass than nuclear fission. The second M device of the China Circulator is the largest and most parametric new-generation advanced magnetic confinement fusion experimental research device in China.

With a more advanced structure and control mode, the plasma ion temperature can reach 100 million degrees Celsius, which can achieve high density, high specific voltage and high bootstrap current operation. <>

Liu Yongde, Chief Engineer of the China Atomic Energy Agency: According to the long-term development vision of China's nuclear industry, we will realize the application of nuclear fusion energy by the middle of this century, which will face many challenges. <

The construction and operation of China's second-circuit M device indicates that China's core-level plasma physics and related technologies have reached the international advanced level, and provides important technical support for China's independent construction of nuclear fusion reactors. At the same time, it also creates the conditions for our further participation in the International Experimental Thermonuclear Fusion Reactor project.

This new breakthrough is that the plasma current has exceeded 1 million**, creating a new record for the operation of China's controllable nuclear fusion device, and the impact is also very huge, and the significance for the development of China's scientific research is very positive.

The new progress in the scientific research of artificial suns will make great breakthroughs in China's scientific research and technology, and will also make greater progress in China's scientific research and technology.

According to the European Alliance for Nuclear Fusion R&D and Innovation (Eurofusion), the British Atomic Energy Agency (UKAEA) and the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) jointly held a press conference on the 9th, European scientists have achieved significant success on the road to energy production through fusion plasma: the world's largest nuclear fusion reactor, the European Union Ring Reactor (JET), has produced a stable plasma with an energy output of 59 megajoules. This is the world's first deuterium-tritium fusion experiment since 1997.

In 1997, JET produced about 22 megajoules of fusion energy plasma, setting a world energy record at the time. The new experiment broke that record, with the fusion reaction in the JET releasing a total of 59 megajoules of energy in the form of neutrons during the 5-second phase of the plasma discharge – expressed in power units, the JET achieved an average power output of more than 11 megawatts in 5 seconds. In the 1997 record, the average power in 5 seconds was megawatts.

Nuclear fusion power generation, also known as the "artificial sun", is designed to mimic the nuclear fusion that occurs on the sun. Nuclear fusion is the fusion of two isotopes of hydrogen, deuterium and tritium, into a single helium atom, a process that releases a large amount of energy. The only device in the world capable of operating with this fuel mixture is currently the JET.

Because tritium is a very rare raw material that requires special treatment, the team usually uses hydrogen or deuterium for plasma experiments, with the last deuterium-tritium fusion experiment being conducted in 1997.

In order to transition to the International Large-Scale Fusion Experiment (ITER) program, the researchers conducted a deuterium-tritium mixed-fuel fusion experiment. At the same time, in order to make the JET experiment as close as possible to the conditions of future thermonuclear fusion reactors, they covered the plasma vessel walls with a mixture of beryllium and tungsten instead of carbon, because tungsten metal is more resistant to corrosion than carbon and does not bind to fuel as much as carbon. The experiment produced a record level of fusion energy at temperatures 10 times higher than that of the Sun's center.

The ITER facility, which is currently under construction in Cadalaki in the south of France, is expected to use a mixture of deuterium and tritium fuels, with plans to produce 10 times the energy of the input (fusion gain). The goal of generating net energy, i.e. twice the amount of energy required to heat the plasma, will not be possible until the Kadaraki ITER facility is "online". Thus, this experiment is a world record set in ITER-like conditions.

Professor Sibil Günther, Scientific Director of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Germany, said: "JET's latest experiment is an important step towards ITER's ultimate goal. ”