The Korean artificial sun sets the new world record of 20 seconds in operation at 100 million degrees

Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR), a superconducting fusion device also known as the Korean artificial sun, set the new world record as it managed to hold the plasma at high temperature for 20 seconds with an ion temperature of more than 100 million degrees.

On November 24 (Tuesday), the KSTAR Research Center of the Korea Institute of Fusion Energy (KEF) announced that in a joint study with Seoul National University (SNU) and Columbia University in the United States, it has 20 seconds with ion temperature above 100 million degrees, which is one of the core conditions of nuclear fusion in the 2020 KSTAR plasma campaign

It is an achievement to extend the 8 second plasma runtime by more than 2 times during the KSTAR Plasma Campaign 2019. In its 2018 experiment, the KSTAR reached the plasma ion temperature of 100 million degrees for the first time (retention time: approximately 1.5 seconds)

In order to recreate fusion reactions taking place in the Sun on Earth, hydrogen isotopes must be placed in a fusion device such as KSTAR to create a plasma state in which ions and electrons are separated, and ions must be heated and kept at high temperatures.

Until now, there are other fusion devices that have briefly managed plasma at temperatures of 100 million degrees or higher. None of them broke the barrier to keep the operation going for 10 seconds or more. It is the operational limit of a normally conductive device and it has been difficult to maintain a stable plasma state in the fusing device at such high temperatures for a long time.

In its 2020 experiment, the KSTAR improved the performance of Internal Transport Barrier (ITB) mode, one of the next-generation plasma operating modes developed last year and managed to maintain plasma status over a long period of time, taking the existing limits of the plasma at ultra-high temperature.

Director Si-Woo Yoon of the KSTAR Research Center at KFE explained, “The technologies required for long operations of 100 million plasmas are key to the realization of fusion energy, and the success of the KSTAR in maintaining the high temperature plasma for 20 seconds will be a major turning point in the race to secure the technologies for the long-term high-performance plasma operation, a critical part of a commercial fusion reactor in the future. ”

“The success of the KSTAR experiment in the long operation at high temperatures by overcoming some of the drawbacks of the ITB modes takes us one step closer to developing technologies for realizing nuclear fusion energy,” adds Yong-Su Na , professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering, SNU, who jointly conducted the study of the KSTAR plasma controls.

Dr. Columbia University’s Young-Seok Park who contributed to the creation of the high-temperature plasma said, “We are honored to be involved in such an important achievement in KSTAR. The ion temperature of 100 million degrees achieved by efficient nuclear plasma heating. possible for such a long duration has demonstrated the unique capability of the superconducting KSTAR device and will be recognized as a compelling foundation for high quality, stable fusion plasmas. ”

KSTAR began using the device last August and plans to continue its plasma generation experiment through December 10, running a total of 110 plasma experiments, including high-performance plasma control and plasma interference mitigation experiments , which are joint research experiments with domestic and foreign research organizations.

In addition to its success in using plasma at high temperatures, the KSTAR Research Center is conducting experiments on a variety of topics, including ITER studies, intended to solve complex problems in fusion research for the remainder of the experiment period.

The KSTAR will share its key 2020 experiment results, including this success, with fusion researchers around the world at the IAEA Fusion Energy Conference to be held in May.

The ultimate goal of the KSTAR is to succeed in a continuous operation of 300 seconds with an ion temperature higher than 100 million degrees by 2025.

KFE President Suk Jae Yoo stated, “I am so happy to announce the new launch of the KFE as an independent research organization from Korea. The KFE will continue its tradition of undertaking challenging research to achieve the goal of humanity. : the realization of nuclear fusion energy, ‘he continued.

As of November 20, 2020, the KFE, formerly the National Fusion Research Institute, an affiliate organization of the Korea Basic Science Institute, has been relaunched as an independent research organization.

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Provided by National Research Council of Science & Technology