[ad_1]
Source title: China’s nuclear fusion development has made a breakthrough, the first generation of “artificial sun” discharges
China Circulator No. 2 M installation taken on December 4 Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Chaoqun
The reporter learned from the National Atomic Energy Agency yesterday (4) that at 2:02 p.m. yesterday, a new generation of “artificial sun” device was completed and downloaded for the first time in Chengdu, Sichuan, the Circulator No 2M from China (HL-2M). This indicates that China has independently mastered the design, construction and operation technology of large-scale advanced tokamak devices, laying a solid foundation for China’s independent design and construction of nuclear fusion reactors.
Solar energy brings us light and heat because it is undergoing thermonuclear fusion reactions all the time. Hydrogen bombs have tremendous power, but also because nuclear fusion reactions can produce enormous amounts of energy. The fuel used in nuclear fusion power is deuterium and tritium, and deuterium is abundant in seawater. Therefore, if humanity masters the controllable nuclear fusion reaction, it means that generations will have unlimited clean energy. At present, the most feasible controllable nuclear fusion reaction device is the tokamak device. It is a toroidal container device that uses magnetic confinement to achieve controllable nuclear fusion, and a coil is wound on the outside of the container. When activated, a huge spiral magnetic field is generated within the tokamak, which heats the plasma in it to a very high temperature to achieve the purpose of nuclear fusion.
The China Circulator No. 2M device built this time is the largest advanced tokamak device with the highest parameters in China, and it is also a new generation of advanced magnetic confinement nuclear fusion experimental research device in China. The plasma volume of the device is more than double that of existing household devices, the plasma current capacity is more than 2.5 megaamperes, and the temperature of plasma ions can reach 150 million degrees Celsius.
The project was approved by the National Atomic Energy Agency in 2009 and was independently designed and built by the Southwest Institute of Physics of China National Nuclear Corporation. In the process of building devices, many research and development units within the Southwest Institute of Physics have made many advances in device physics and structural design, development of specialty materials, connecting materials, and research and development of key components. The completion of the device enables China’s central-level plasma physics research and related key technologies to reach the international advanced level.Reporter Zhang Hang, correspondent Wang Shuying
