Welcome back to Asia in Science! One thing we are bound to see every day is the Sun. A celestial body that lights up the face of the Earth. Today’s blog concerns China’s invention and research into creating its artificial sun, EAST (Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak).
The Trillion Dollar Sun: The Chinese Quest for Infinite Energy
Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Imagine a world where harnessing energy is limitless, not dependent on fossil fuels or water or the wind. Such is the premise of our time’s most ambitious scientific project, the EAST.
4% of global primary energy comes from nuclear power, all of it created in fission reactors. The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) is set to replicate the sun’s energy production process, nuclear fusion- a feat unachieved before. (Fusion reactions release 3-4 times more energy than fission reactions.)
Nestled in Hefei China, the cutting-edge fusion reactor has set the global stage for what could be the ultimate solution to humanity's energy crisis. The construction of EAST is based on the principle of a tokamak, a fusion reactor that uses powerful magnetic fields to confine hot plasma in a doughnut-shaped chamber. Achieving and heating plasma over 100 million degrees Celsius, even hotter than the sun's core, is not a mere attainment. To convert hydrogen isotopes into helium, the plasma consists of charged particles, such as deuterium and tritium. These ions are heated to extremely high temperatures using Neutral Beam Injection, Radiofrequency, and Ohmic Heating to initiate fusion.
Superconducting magnets, Niobium-Titanium (NbTi) and Niobium-Tin (Nb3Sn) create strong, continuous, and steady-state magnetic fields that keep the plasma from touching the reactor walls. (This prevents cooling which would stop the fusion reaction instantaneously). As hydrogen isotope nuclei collide at high speeds inside EAST, they release a tremendous amount of energy in the form of neutrons. This is the same process that powers stars.
The 11-meter-tall and 8-meter-wide machine weighs around 400 tons, stored in a large facility at the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science. EAST's work also contributes to international projects like ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor), which aims to build the world's first large-scale fusion reactor capable of producing more energy than it consumes.
The trillion-dollar EAST and its experiments are on their expedition to lay the groundwork for future nuclear fusion reactors. In such a fully operational fusion reactor, the energy released from the fusion reaction would heat a working fluid, typically water, to produce steam. The steam would then drive turbines to generate electricity.
EAST’s groundbreaking advancements have captivated the scientific community globally, drawing attention from leading researchers such as Dr. Xu Jianguo, a key scientist behind EAST, and Dr. Steven Cowley, Director of the UK Atomic Energy Authority. Currently, countless collaborative efforts from major international projects like ITER in France and the KSTAR reactor in South Korea support China’s commitment to spearheading the creation of infinite clean energy.
A man-made Sun sounds pretty interesting. Thank you for reading my blog! Please stay curious and alert for new blogs on Asian scientific contributions and inventions.
-Mihika Singhania
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