The machine’s reactor is being tested so that the heating system supporting it becomes more ‘warm’ and ‘durable’. It is designed and made by China itself. EAST has been used for nuclear fusion experiments since 2006, but only recently, researchers have achieved great success.
A report in the South China Morning Post said that in this experiment, the ‘artificial sun’ was maintained at a temperature of 70 million degrees Celsius for 17 minutes and 36 seconds. It is about five times hotter than the real Sun and its core temperature is more than 15 million degrees Celsius.
This experiment took place at the Hefei Institute of Physical Science in Anhui, China’s eastern province. Gong Xianzu, in-charge of the EAST experiment, said that ‘this experiment lays a solid scientific foundation for running the reactor.’ A New York Post report states that more than 10,000 Chinese and foreign scientific researchers were part of this $948 million (about Rs 7,060 crore) project. The experiment, which started in December last year, is expected to continue till June this year.
Song Yuntao, director of the Institute of Plasma Physics, said that five years from now, we will start building our fusion reactor. It will take 10 years. He believes that with this experiment, electricity generation can be started by the year 2040.
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