China Just Switched on Its 'Artificial Sun' Nuclear Fusion Reactor

originally posted by: Kenzo

Just how on earth they can measure 150 million degrees Celsius ? What kind of meter can measure that? or is that just theoretical measuring ?

Despite these challenges, plasma physicists have developed multiple methods for deducing the temperature (figure 1) – cross-checking the results of different methods increases the reliability of your measurements – so that they can be confident that they are in control of what goes on inside one of the hottest places in the Solar System.

The first ‘thermometer’ relies on the effect that magnetic fields have on charged particles. Because they are charged, electrons are forced to spiral along the magnetic field lines, which creates microwaves called cyclotron emission (figure 2). The hotter – and therefore faster-moving – the electrons are, the more intense are the microwaves that they emit.

The microwaves also yield a profile of the electron temperature, due to the varied magnetic field in the vessel: the stronger the field, the higher the spiralling frequency. A scan of intensity against frequency tells us the temperature for each magnetic field strength. Combining this with a spatial map of the magnetic field strength, created by other systems, gives us a profile of the electron temperature.

JET’s second ‘thermometer’ uses a system similar to a police speed camera to measure the speed of particles, except that it uses laser light (LIDAR) instead of radio waves. Light from the laser is scattered by the electrons in a process known as Thomson scattering; if the electrons are moving, then the scattered light will be Doppler shifted (figure 3). We are more familiar with Doppler shifts of sound: the sound from passing cars has a slightly higher pitch as they move towards us than when moving away. Similarly, if light is scattered by moving electrons, its frequency (colour) will be Doppler shifted to higher frequencies for the electrons moving towards the detector and to lower frequencies for those moving away. The faster the electron moves, the bigger the frequency shift.

Link

originally posted by: FauxMulder

originally posted by: android
a reply to: Mailman

Way to turn an interesting topic into a race issue.

Yea, OP should have been a little something like this.

 

In 2018 China reached 180 million degrees with a goal to double that by 2020. Though they have not yet hit that this year, they are getting closer.

They are not the first in the world to achieve this as the US and the USSR have been working on it since at least the 50's.

Initially this work in the U.S., UK and USSR was secret. However, by the mid-1950’s administrators and scientists alike were convinced that controlled fusion research had no military applications, and in particular had nothing to do with the development of thermonuclear weapons.

Since fusion research had no military applications, it was declassified by the major participating nations, and cooperation in fusion began between the U.S. and the USSR.

Link

In 2018 they were able to hold plasma for 10 seconds so they still have a long way to go before this is a viable reactor.

EAST reached plasma for 10 seconds in 2018, which is a major milestone. But it’s just the very, very beginning . . . of the beginning.

One may ask how anything on earth can contain these temperatures.

As a refresher, inside the donut-shaped (or, sometimes, more spherical) containment of a tokamak, sun-hot plasma swirls in a circle that’s held in place by supercooled electromagnets.

This magnetic field is the only thing floating between 360-million-degree plasma and a bunch of human-made materials that obviously can’t sustain that temperature. The plasma results from smashing different nuclei together, fusing them rather than splitting them.

Read the full popular mechanics article.

Nuclear fusion is 50 years away, and it was 50 years away 50 years ago. For anyone who follows the subject they will know what this means.

I don't think the Tokamak is the way to go, we've been trying to make it work for decades, seems like a total dead end.

Lockheed Martin were talking about a different approach which seems a lot more promising.

www.thedrive.com...

ITER could work but is far too big and expensive to make economically viable fusion power.

This Chinese reactor looks a long long way behind ITER, and is just another Tokamak.

a reply to: JimTSpock

Yes, I doubt I'll see it in my lifetime. It's still a very cool topic nontheless.

a reply to: FauxMulder

I think with Lockheed on the project it's actually much more likely. They are 100% motivated by profit and I feel if anyone can do this they will, they are not constrained by any existing paradigm.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

Skunk works has a pretty good history of making cool, next level stuff. I hope they can pull it off.

a reply to: FauxMulder

They have one of the most impressive technology innovation records in the world, in my opinion they have the inside track to get to market first.

How has this thread not been closed?

Let me sum up the OP:

"Asian people cannot be trusted with anything"

Oh by the way, the Americans are the ones that dropped two atomic bombs.

Oh, but it was on the Asians. So nevermind. (sarcasm)

originally posted by: Mailman
They have not contributed anything to the world other than manufacturing if other people's inventions, now they have this cutting edge science?? I call BS.

You really don't know what the hell you're talking about.

Maybe some studying of various Asian culture and history would help.

"They" have contributed much to the world.

originally posted by: bastion
I'm not a racist but,....Asians.

Every Asian (and European) country massively outperforms the US in STEM, the US was number one 50 years ago but been in huge decline since US is around 56th - 58th in the world now. China has been number one for 30 years.

US has been slobbered with communist BS to drag it down for approximately 50 plus years. Thus the decline. Heck, now most college age US citizens feel that their genitals or skin color is the most important thing in the world.

a reply to: Mailman

I really don't care how it sounds. I'm not a democrat anymore.

Politics has nothing to do with being a racist prick, thats a character flaw..........

a reply to: Mailman

150 million degrees Celsius!

My bet is It's going to melt in space where heat dissipation is an issue.

Unless China's material science has skipped a few 1000 years into the future.

a reply to: FauxMulder

Thanks, look`s quite complicated all ...

originally posted by: snowspirit
worldpopulationreview.com...

Here are the 10 countries with the highest IQ:

Hong Kong (108)
Singapore (108)
South Korea (106)
China (105)
Japan (105)
Taiwan (104)
Italy (102)
Switzerland (101)
Mongolia (101)
Iceland (101)

Yep something about them Asians...

I wouldn't put much stock in that statistical data. There are numerous people from those asian countries in countries not listed. How can there be an accurate representation, when they are largely the most involved in the scientific fields.

Do you count the pages in a book to be a representation of it's word count?

How do they contain something that is 150 million degrees C?

originally posted by: avgguy
How do they contain something that is 150 million degrees C?

Like many of the world’s tokamak experiments, EAST has reached fusion before. As a refresher, inside the donut-shaped (or, sometimes, more spherical) containment of a tokamak, sun-hot plasma swirls in a circle that’s held in place by supercooled electromagnets.

This magnetic field is the only thing floating between 360-million-degree plasma and a bunch of human-made materials that obviously can’t sustain that temperature.

When EAST was built in 2006, the team’s researchers began an escalating series of experiments. Part of this is simple proof of concept, because the temperatures inside tokamaks are almost unprecedented on Earth, period—at least on the surface during the Anthropocene.

As temperatures climb, the magnetic containment must also increase, and this has been a key point of failure (or at least “challenge”) for these reactors. Pushing each experimental run a little bit hotter and bigger has let researchers continue to shore up the external parts.

This means the outside chambers of these tokamak reactors are usually cryogenically cooled masterpieces in their own right, able to withstand conditions that would buckle almost anything else in the world.

www.popularmechanics.com...

a reply to: avgguy

Generally with a magnetic confinement bubble/field.

Heat and confinement, keeping the plasma away from the walls, is still a major issue all the same, even down here.

originally posted by: Mailman
It uses a powerful magnetic field to fuse hot plasma and can reach temperatures of over 150 million degrees Celsius, according to the People's Daily - approximately 10 times hotter than the core of the sun

www.sciencealert.com...

I'm sorry something about the asians, I don't think the world should trust their ability to control such things. Same with japan landing and getting samples of meteor/comet.
There is too many instances of asian engineering that shows they shouldn't be in control of such things.

Wow!! That's so retro racist one would think, pre WW II or pre Battle of Tsushima.

a reply to: Mailman

"The Asians" have some incredibly impressive engineering accomplishments under their belts.

Yes, much of China's product manufacturing is terribly shoddy (because you get what you pay for / ask for.)

"Asian" Engineering (in this case, Chinese) Maglev Trail

"Asian Engineering" (in this case, Japanese) Subaru - among the safest, most reliable vehicles in the world

N95 mask filtration developed by a Taiwanese man, Japanese robotics, the lists are endless.

Anyhow, fusion reactors aren't all that dangerous. The most difficult part is keeping the reaction going (whereas the most important part of fission reactors is keeping the reaction in check.)

If their engineering isn't up to par, the reaction will simply fizzle out. We're still measuring fusion reactors in how many seconds the reaction holds before failing.

a reply to: dogstar23

Honda VTEC, SL1210 mk2, the list is endless on showing the planet the way on how to manufacture world class products. The Asians are kick ass imho especially the Japanese and showed that the West couldn't continue churning out mediocre and unreliable products when faced with some proper first class competition

a reply to: FauxMulder

cough*lockheed*cough

lockheedmartin.com...

I think we already have them,but they are only in the black right now.