Korean artificial sun sets new world record for 20-second-long operation at 100 million degrees

Korea Superconducting Talkmac Advanced Research (KSTAR), a superconducting fusion device known as the Korean artificial sun, set a new world record as it managed to maintain a high temperature plasma for 20 seconds with ion temperatures above 100 million degrees.

On November 24 (Tuesday), the KSTAR Research Center of the Korea Institute of Fusion Energy (KEF) announced that in joint research with Seoul National University (SNU) and Columbia University in the United States, it has been successful in continuous operation of plasma. For 20 seconds with an ion-temperature greater than 100 million degrees, which is one of the main conditions for molecular fusion in the 2020 KSTAR plasma mission.

Increasing the 8 second plasma operation time to more than 2 times during the 2019 KSTAR plasma campaign is an achievement. In its 2018 experiment, KSTAR reached a plasma ion temperature of 100 million degrees for the first time (retention time: about 1.5 seconds).

To recreate the fusion reactions that take place in the sun on Earth, hydrogen isotopes must be placed inside a fusion device such as KSTAR to form a plasma state, where ions and electrons separate, and the ions must be heated and maintained at high temperatures.

Yet, there are other fusion devices that have briefly operated plasma at temperatures of 100 million degrees or more. None of them broke the barrier in maintaining the maintaining paralysis for 10 seconds or more. It is the operational operational limitation of a normal-conductive device and for a long time it was difficult to maintain a stable plasma state in a fusion device at such high temperatures.

In its 2020 experiment, KSTAR improved the operation of the Internal Transport Barrier (ITB) mode, one of the next pay generation plasma operation modes developed last year, and managed to maintain the plasma state longer, overcoming existing limitations. Ultra-high-temperature plasma operation.

C-Woo Yun, director of KFE’s KSTAR research center, explained, “The technologies required for the long-term operation of 100 million-plasma are the key to the realization of fusion energy, and KSTAR’s success in maintaining high-temperature plasma for 20 years.” Seconds will be a turning point in the race to secure technologies for. “

“The success of KSTAR’s experiment in long, high-temperature operation overcoming some of the shortcomings of ITB modes brings us one step closer to the development of technology for the realization of nuclear fusion energy,” said Yong-su Na, Professor of Nuclear Engineering, SNU. KSTAR is conducting research on plasma operation.

Young-Seek Park of Columbia University, who contributed to the creation of the high-temperature plasma, said: “We are proud to be involved in such an important achievement in KSTAR. Enabling efficient core plasma heating to 100 million-degree ion temperatures. For so long. The unique conductivity of the superconducting KSTAR device has been demonstrated, and will be accepted as an attractive base for high performance, stable state fusion plasmas. “

KSTAR began operating the device last August and plans to continue its plasma pay experiment until December 10, with a total of 110 plasma experiments including high-performance plasma operation and plasma disruption prevention experiments, combined with domestic and foreign research. There are experiments. Organizations.

In addition to the success in temperature plasma operation, KSTAR Research Center conducts experiments on a variety of topics, including ITER research, designed to solve complex problems of fusion research during the remainder of the experiment period.

KSTR It is going to share the results of its main experiment in 2020 which will include success with worldwide researchers at the IAEA Fusion Energy Conference around the world in May.

The ultimate goal of KSTAR is to succeed in a continuous operation of 300 seconds with ion temperatures above 100 million degrees by 2025.

KFE President Suk Ja Yu said, “I am delighted to announce the new launch of KFE as Korea’s independent research institute. KFE will continue its tradition of challenging research to achieve the goal of mankind: the realization of ‘nuclear fusion energy, Kept.

By November 20, 2020, KFE, formerly an affiliate of the National Fusion Research Institute, Korea Basic Science Institute, was re-launched as an independent research institute.

Provided by the National Research Council Science f Science and Technology