Scientists may have just taken one step closer to bringing the world unlimited clean renewable energy.
Scientists in China say they have exceeded their expectations and achieved a new milestone after an energy test.
The researchers have attempting to create a viable power generation through nuclear fusion and it has been deemed the ‘holy grail’ for clean energy.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has said that is nuclear reactor, dubbed the ‘artificial sun’, successfully ran twice as long as their previous test. It ran for 1,066 seconds, just over 17 minutes.
The idea of replicating the Sun’s nuclear fusion process hasn’t just been relegated to science fiction as scientists around the world have experimented continuously to make it a reality.
Mastering this process could provide humanity with a limitless clean energy source. An artificial sun reactor has the possibility to avoid the pitfalls of other energy sources, as it would not produce the emissions like fossil fuels, or leave behind any hazardous waste like that seen from the fission process in nuclear power plants.
A nuclear fusion reactor would merge atomic nuclei, generating massive amounts of energy in the process that can be turned into electricity.
In a statement CAS said that its reactor, the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (East) smashed the previous operating time of only 403 seconds.
The statement said: “The duration of 1,066 seconds is a critical advancement in fusion research.”
The quest for this perfect energy source isn’t without its hurdles, however.
Researchers must find a viable way to ensure the reactor can consistently reach temperatures exceeding 100 million degrees Celsius, while maintaining stable long term operation. As well as this, scientists will need to have precise control over the nuclear fusion process.
The vice president at CAS’s Hefei Institutes of Physical Science Song Yuntao said to enable the self-sustaining circulation of the fourth state of matter, plasma, a fusion device must achieve ‘stable operation at high efficiency for thousands of seconds’.
This new milestone was able to be achieved thanks to upgrades to East since the last round of experiments. Most notably scientists doubled the power output of the heating system.
These achievements, according to researchers, provide ‘invaluable insights’ and references for the global development of a functional nuclear fusion reactor.
Only time will tell if we are still complaining about energy prices in the next couple decades.
