South Korean researchers have maintained plasma temperatures of 100 million degrees Celsius for 48 seconds inside a tokamak fusion reactor.
In a new world record, China's "artificial sun" project has sustained a nuclear fusion reaction for more than 17 min. Superheated plasma reached almost 70 million degrees C— that's roughly five times hotter than the sun.
The KSTAR, a superconducting fusion device also known as the Korean artificial sun, set the new world record as it succeeded in maintaining the high temperature plasma for 20 seconds with an ion t over 100 mil degrees.
The HL-2M Tokamak reactor is China's largest and most advanced nuclear fusion experimental research device, and scientists hope that the device can potentially unlock a powerful clean energy source.
The Chinese EAST reactor team was able to integrate four types of heating power in order to reach a new temperature record - a cloud of charged particles that contained electrons heated to more than 100 million °C.
