Post by Admin on Jun 29, 2021 10:24:40 GMT
China’s Fusion Research Is Heating Up
The EAST reactor in Hefei broke records last month as it edges toward the sustained stellar temperatures needed to generate fusion energy.
The hottest thing in the solar system is usually the Sun, with its core temperature of 15 million degrees Celsius. But for nearly two minutes on May 28, the title was held by an experimental fusion reactor in Hefei, China. The implications for global politics and security are monumental.
Unlike nuclear fission, which slams a neutron into an atom to yield two smaller and generally radioactive atoms plus energy, nuclear fusion combines two atoms. The outcome is far more energy, but without the radioactive waste. Though some doubt the prospects, the concept of safe, clean, renewable power from fusion has been the holy grail of energy experimentation.
A key approach has been the Tokamak reactor, the first of which was powered up in 1958 in Moscow. These reactors follow a toroidal design, akin to a donut, in which plasma is generated and contained using extremely powerful magnetic fields. Atoms within the field are forced together until their cores fuse, forming heavier elements and releasing tremendous amounts of energy. Research programs at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and Joint European Torus in England follow similar approaches.
China launched its first effort to design and build its own tokamak in 1998, as a part of the country’s Ninth Five-Year Plan Major National Scientific Projects. The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak, or EAST, reactor was first brought online in 2007; it has been achieving stable plasma generation for nearly 11 years. This year, the reactor broke terrestrial records when it reached sustained plasma temperatures of 120 million degrees Celsius for 101 seconds and temperatures of 160 million degrees for 20 seconds.
This progress toward the sustained superhot conditions necessary for fusion is key to China’s strategic push to sustainable energy self-sufficiency. The country's economic growth requires reliable sources of energy and creates new vulnerabilities, as recently highlighted by straining electric grids in Guangdong provinces, one of China's economic powerhouses.
In 2019, China consumed 14 million barrels of petroleum per day. Over 70 percent of this came from abroad, mostly shipped from OPEC countries in the Middle East through a series of maritime chokepoints. Price fluctuations make this foreign dependence a strategic vulnerability even in the best of circumstances. Should those imports be threatened, as through blockades or military actions during a crisis or war, it could cripple China’s industrial production and its broader society.
Energy independence is thus a top priority for decision-makers in Beijing. Further, the development of viable fusion reactors will have many added advantages yet unforeseen in the military and civilian economy, much the same way that nuclear fission power did.
Unlike nuclear fission, which slams a neutron into an atom to yield two smaller and generally radioactive atoms plus energy, nuclear fusion combines two atoms. The outcome is far more energy, but without the radioactive waste. Though some doubt the prospects, the concept of safe, clean, renewable power from fusion has been the holy grail of energy experimentation.
A key approach has been the Tokamak reactor, the first of which was powered up in 1958 in Moscow. These reactors follow a toroidal design, akin to a donut, in which plasma is generated and contained using extremely powerful magnetic fields. Atoms within the field are forced together until their cores fuse, forming heavier elements and releasing tremendous amounts of energy. Research programs at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and Joint European Torus in England follow similar approaches.
China launched its first effort to design and build its own tokamak in 1998, as a part of the country’s Ninth Five-Year Plan Major National Scientific Projects. The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak, or EAST, reactor was first brought online in 2007; it has been achieving stable plasma generation for nearly 11 years. This year, the reactor broke terrestrial records when it reached sustained plasma temperatures of 120 million degrees Celsius for 101 seconds and temperatures of 160 million degrees for 20 seconds.
This progress toward the sustained superhot conditions necessary for fusion is key to China’s strategic push to sustainable energy self-sufficiency. The country's economic growth requires reliable sources of energy and creates new vulnerabilities, as recently highlighted by straining electric grids in Guangdong provinces, one of China's economic powerhouses.
In 2019, China consumed 14 million barrels of petroleum per day. Over 70 percent of this came from abroad, mostly shipped from OPEC countries in the Middle East through a series of maritime chokepoints. Price fluctuations make this foreign dependence a strategic vulnerability even in the best of circumstances. Should those imports be threatened, as through blockades or military actions during a crisis or war, it could cripple China’s industrial production and its broader society.
Energy independence is thus a top priority for decision-makers in Beijing. Further, the development of viable fusion reactors will have many added advantages yet unforeseen in the military and civilian economy, much the same way that nuclear fission power did.