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China has successfully powered up its nuclear fusion reactor or the "artificial sun" for the first time, its state media announced to the world, marking a significant contribution to the country's nuclear power research.
The HL-2M Tokamak reactor is the largest and most advanced nuclear fusion experimental research device of China, and scientists are positively hopeful that the device can potentially unlock a powerful clean energy source.
It make use of a powerful magnetic field to fuse hot plasma and is capable of reaching temperatures of over 150 million degrees Celsius, which is roughly ten times hotter than the core of the sun, report its media.
Its location is in southwestern Sichuan province and was completed very recently. The reactor is often referred to an "artificial sun" due to the enormous heat and power it is capable of producing.
"The development of nuclear fusion energy is not only a way to solve China's strategic energy needs, but also has great significance for the future sustainable development of China's energy and national economy," the People's Daily made the world know.
Chinese scientists have been on the project since 2006 developing smaller versions of the nuclear fusion reactor.
They are planning to use the device in collaboration with scientists working on the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), which is the world's largest nuclear fusion research project based in France, expected to be completed by the year 2025.
Fusion is often considered the Holy Grail of energy and is actually the process that powers our sun. In this process it merges atomic nuclei to create massive amounts of energy which is quite opposite to the fission process used in atomic weapons and nuclear power plants, which splits them into fragments. However unlike fission, fusion emits no greenhouse gases and has lesser risk of accidents or the theft of atomic material.
But achieving fusion is both extremely difficult and unbelievably expensive, with the total cost of ITER estimated at $22.5 billion.
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