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Nuclear fusion energy is a promise that several countries have been trying to fulfill for decades. Now China says it’s closer to getting there.
Last weekend, the authorities of this country announced that they had launched a reactor with which they want to advance the goal of nuclear fusion power generation.
The device is called HL-2M Tokamak and is located in the city of Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province in southwest China.
The Tokamak HL-2M is capable of generating temperatures of 150,000,000 degrees Celsius, which is why its creators call it “an artificial sun”.
By comparison, the core of the Sun reaches “only” 15,000,000 C.
The high temperatures generated by the “artificial sun” are essential to achieve nuclear fusion, a process which for years has been touted as a means of producing clean and practically inexhaustible energy.
What is China’s announced achievement and what does it mean for the long-awaited conquest of nuclear fusion energy?
To understand this, let’s first take a look at what nuclear fusion is.
As the name suggests, this is a process in which ncleo of two light atoms come together to form a heavier nucleus.
Large amounts of energy are released in every fusion reaction.
This is how the Sun and the stars work, where millions of reactions occur every second during which hydrogen nuclei, for example, they merge and create helium nuclei.
Nuclear fusion energy projects attempt to imitate what happens in the sun.
The idea is to take a type of hydrogen gas, heat it over 100 million degrees until it forms a thin, brittle cloud called plasma, then control this plasma by powerful magnets until the atoms merge and release energy.
This process releases low amounts of carbon and little waste, which is why nuclear fusion has been proposed as a way to protect the environment.
Nuclear fusion energy enthusiasts say it could leave behind fossil fuels, one of those responsible for climate change.
Currently, nuclear energy is produced by processes of tribe, an anti-fusion method in which a heavy core is split to produce lighter ones.
Fission generates large amounts of radioactive waste and raises concerns about proliferation of nuclear weapons.
In addition, unlike a fusion, fission generates a chain reaction, which creates the risk of a explosion.
Therefore, the fusion energy is considered safer than fission.
The “artificial sun” that China has ushered in is what engineers call a tokamak, a machine designed to harness the energy of fusion.
A tokamak functions as a ring-shaped vacuum chamber in which heat and pressure the extreme gas turns into plasma and fusion begins.
El HL-2M in el tokamak bigger and more advanced created by China, according to the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC, for its acronym in English).
According to its creators, the HL-2M can treat more than double the amount of plasma available to other devices in that country.
“It is an important support device to achieve the advancement of China’s nuclear fusion power,” said a statement from CNNC.
CNNC also points out that the “artificial sun” is an “essential platform with which China can absorb ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) technology”.
ITER, which is built in France, is the largest nuclear fusion project worldwide, involving the European Union, the United States, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and China.
ITER’s objective is to build a tokamak capable of producing 500 MW of electricity by 2025.
A reactor that generates 500 MW of energy will suffice to supply approximately 200,000 households simultaneously.
The ITER experiment will not be able to convert the energy it produces into electricity, but it aims to be the first fusion experiment to succeed in generating more energy than it consumes.
The information from the HL-2M “will be a useful input for the future operation of ITER and will allow Chinese researchers enjoy ITER results, ”Stewart Prager, a researcher in the Plasma Physics Laboratory at Princeton University, told BBC Mundo.
Despite the enthusiasm for advances in nuclear fusion energy, some experts maintain their Reservations.
Until now, it was difficult to get the fusion energy to be commercially viable, because scientists have not been able to generate enough energy from the reactions.
The tokamak that exists today consume more energy than they produce.
“I am not very excited”Chary Rangacharyulu, a nuclear physics expert at the University of Saskatchewan (Canada), told BBC World, referring to China’s “artificial sun” announcement.
Rangacharyulu mentions that the high cost of these projects and the time required to produce an experimental model means that “not convinced“That they are the solution to the world’s energy problem.
The teacher adds that in general it is not “Very optimistic” nuclear fusion energy because, unlike fission, the reaction cannot be sustained.
“When the chain reaction starts in nuclear fission, it can continue and you just have to control it“said the expert.
“The fusion process is not a chain reaction, there must be constant supply of particles that support the reaction.
Finally, Rangacharyulu warns that fusion energy is not totally clean, because it can produce neutrons capable of generating radioactivity.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says fusion is one of the “sources of energy more sympathetic with the environment ”, but warns that reducing the influx of neutrons into a reactor structure“ is a major challenge for future fusion experiments ”.
Either way, China maintains its nuclear enthusiasm.
According to CNNC, the country aims to develop an experimental fusion reactor in 2021, build an industrial prototype by 2035 and enter large-scale commercial use in 2050.
“There are still a few decades before fusion produces energy on a commercially significant scale,” concludes Professor Prager.
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