China is getting closer to nuclear fusion: a temperature of 100 million degrees has been created – 28/04/2019

Inside a giant steel hamburger crowned with its national flag, China has achieved a world first: create a temperature of 100 million degrees, a small step towards nuclear fusion, key in the renewable energy sector.

The reactor installed in Hefei (east) is used to conduct experiments as part of the Iter project, the huge international work being created in the south-east of France to control the fusion of the atom.

The record temperature reached by the Chinese aircraft in November represents Six times the heat produced in the very heart of the sun.

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This "tokamak superconductor advanced experimental" is better known by the acronym "EAST".

The tokamak, a magnetic containment chamber initially designed in the USSR, generates incredible heat for the purpose of melting atomic nuclei.

This nuclear "fusion" – the principle of which is already used in the explosion of hydrogen bombs – should not be confused with "fission" – the division of atoms – which is carried out in conventional atomic power plants.

Nuclear fusion is considered the energy of tomorrow, since it is infinitelike the sun, and produces no waste or greenhouse gases.

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"With this machine, we hope to bring China's contribution to the use of nuclear fusion by humanity," says Song Yuntao, one of the leaders of the experimental reactor project.

The challenge is to maintain these high temperatures in a sustainable manner and to contain them in resistant materials. All this has a cost: more than 12 years after the launch of the project, the Iter budget is estimated at nearly 20,000 million euros.

In Hefei, the reactor protrudes into a cement structure. It is connected by wires and tubes to a tangle of measuring devices and other equipment, a "decoration" reminiscent of the spokes of a bicycle wheel.

Nuclear fusion research is not new. According to Iter, the Jet project in the UK is the largest and most powerful tokamak ever built.

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According to Wu Songtao, an engineer at ITER, other magnetic containment chambers, some of which are no longer in service, were built in Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea.

"The EAST only reached 100 million degrees in the center of the machine and the temperature was much lower outside the core," he notes. "These settings are still very far from those expected for the Iter."

The reactor under construction in Saint-Paul-lès-Durance in southeastern France, which will be ten times larger than its predecessors, is expected to reach 150 million degrees. The first tests are planned for 2025.

China, for its part, wants to build another nuclear fusion reactor which, unlike the EU, would be connected to the electricity grid, who could start feeding "from here 2040 or 2050", at the end of investigations in 2030, according to Yuntao.

The budget for this phase is 6,000 million yuan (800 million euros).

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These different projects "are based on the Iter," but still demonstrate China's scientific breakthroughs, Wu said.

Although the country is "between 20 and 30 years behind" major industrialized countries in terms of nuclear energy, "its capabilities have grown rapidly over the last 20 years, especially since its integration into the world. 39, Iter, "says the engineer. .

Interviewed by the official Xinhua news agency in 2017, Iter chief Bernard Bigot has called the Chinese government "highly motivated" by the nuclear fusion project.

Because of its astronomical costs, "the merger is not something that states can do alone," Song says. "As with Iter, the people of the world must work together," he added.

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Source: AFP