The artificial sun that is made by South Korea has smashed a world record after running over 100 million degrees for around 20 seconds.
The Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR), which is the ones that are responsible of handling a fusion device, confirmed the news.
They are key to the 2020 KSTAR Plasma Campaign.
The goal of KSTAR is create the fusion reactions of the sun on our planet.
In simpler words, humans want to hold the power of the sun in the palm of their hands.
According to reports, there is no fusion device on this planet that has been capable of maintaining 100 million degrees or higher for 10 seconds or more.
But that has changed.
Si-Woo Yoon, director of the KSTAR Research Center at the KFE, confirmed the news and said:
The technologies required for long operations of 100 million plasma are the key to the realization of fusion energy, and the KSTAR’s success in maintaining the high-temperature plasma for 20 seconds will be an important turning point in the race for securing the technologies for the long high-performance plasma operation, a critical component of a commercial nuclear fusion reactor in the future.
Yong-Su Na, a professor at the department of Nuclear Engineering, SNU, said:
The success of the KSTAR experiment in the long, high-temperature operation by overcoming some drawbacks of the ITB modes brings us a step closer to the development of technologies for realisation of nuclear fusion energy.
Professor Na has teamed up with the KFE on the KSTAR Plasma Operation.
The accomplishments of the KSTAR will be shared with the IEA Fusion Energy Conference on May of 2021.
Researchers in Korea currently have a goal, and that is to run the machine at 100 million degrees for over 300 seconds by the year 2025.