China's artificial sun is already in operation and promises to be the solution to a renewable future. The 'new sun' is 13 times hotter than our star, the equipment can generate 500 MW of energy.
A China once again positions itself at the technological forefront, this time with its scientists launching their own artificial Sun. This remarkable innovation marks a significant turning point in space research and exploration, demonstrating that China is ahead of other nations in developing advanced technologies. O Chinese artificial sun, One clean and inexhaustible energy source, promises to have profound implications for global energy sustainability in the future.
Understand how China's artificial sun works
The energy of Nuclear fusion It is a promise that has been seeking to become a reality for decades in several countries and China is one step ahead of this great achievement. The country has developed its own artificial sun, a nuclear fusion research device that should pave the way for clean energy similar to the real sun.
The completion of the reactor was announced and it began operating in 2020. The real name of the artificial Sun is HL2M and was built by China National Nuclear Corporation and the Southwest Institute of Physics. The reactor is located in Leshan, where it was built to research fusion technology.
To understand China's artificial sun, it is first necessary to explain what nuclear fusion is. As its name suggests, it is a process in which the nucleus of two light atoms unite to form the heavier nucleus.
With each fusion reaction, a large amount of energy is released. This is how the sun and stars work, where millions of reactions occur every second in which hydrogen nuclei, for example, fuse and generate helium nuclei.
China's artificial sun reaches temperatures 13 times higher than the original sun
Although it is compared to the star that illuminates our planet, China's artificial sun can reach temperatures 13 times hotter than our star. The HL2M will be able to achieve 200 million degrees Celsius, 360 million degrees Fahrenheit. For comparison purposes, the sun reaches 15 million degrees Celsius at its core.
The physics teacher Gao Zhe, from Beijing's Tsinghua University, stated in an interview that scientists around the world still have many problems to overcome in the field of nuclear fusion. There is no guarantee that all of these issues will be resolved, but if this is not done, the issues will definitely not be resolved.
China's artificial sun is what engineers call tokamak, a machine developed to harness the energy of nuclear fusion. It works like a ring-shaped vacuum chamber, where the gas, through heat and pressure, converts into plasma and initiates fusion. O HL2M is the largest and most advanced Tokamak created by China, according to information from the China National Nuclear Company (CNNC).
New artificial sun can generate 500 MW of power by 2025
According to its creators, China's artificial sun can process more than twice as much plasma as other devices in the country. It is an important supporting equipment for achieving the advancement of nuclear fusion energy in China, the statement said. CNNC.
The company also highlights that China's artificial Sun is an indispensable platform with which the country can absorb the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) technology being built in France.
It is the largest nuclear fusion project in the world, involving the European Union, United States, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and China. ITER's objective is to build a Tokamak that can produce 500 megawatts of energy by 2025. The reactor that generates all this energy would be enough to supply around 200 homes at the same time.
