China's World Record 1,069 Seconds

 For the past few months something has been buzzing in the nuclear fusion field. 

The Chinese have built an experimental fusion reactor (at a staggering cost of US$1 TRILLION)  which was able to sustain a plasma for 1,069 seconds (just over 17 minutes).

The previous record was over 100 seconds achieved by the French in 2013 - 9 years ago. Here is a short video: 

This is big science and very big engineering.  Big meaning money. US$1 TRILLION for a science project is a lot of money.

As in any science there are many ways of solving this fusion reactor issues. It has been 60 years in the making with no commercial fusion reactor in sight yet.

This video says the Chinese will have a fusion reactor up and running by 2035. I believe the Chinese will do it much earlier than that.

The Americans recently made a huge announcement that their fusion experiment (using high energy lasers) had been able to yield more energy than was put in. A world first so they said. Their reaction lasted nanoseconds or picoseconds. And yet they qualified their claims by saying that it would take decades (30-50 years) before they could commercialise their fusion reactor. In short its not going to happen.

The Chinese are trying the tokamak method - containing a very hot electric plasma (70 million degrees?) inside a containment vessel without the plasma touching the walls of the containment vessel (the tokamak). 

They have achieved a world record of 1,069 seconds for keeping the very hot plasma inside the tokamak. 

Their next step will be to keep the plasma going for much longer and try to generate more energy than 'they put in'. 

It has really taken 60 years for the world's scientific community to get to this level. I recall I was a young teenager when the Canadians pioneered the tokamak at one of their research facilities. Then others began building bigger and better tokamaks around the world. Keeping the plasma going at 70 million to 100 million degrees has always been the biggest challenge.

As I said this is big money science. The more money you can throw into the research (and the more top scientists and engineers you have) the closer you will get to the final results. China has a super abundance of both - money and scientific talent.

What does it mean?  Why is this worth investing US$1 Trillion?

Because if the fusion reactor works, it could be the end of fossil fuel energy permanently. Fusion energy is non radioactive, it does not pollute, there are no harmful  waste products. And the source of the fuel is sea water. 

It means independence. China will not be dependent on anyone for energy.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT