Africa-Press – Sierra-Leone. A group of Chinese scientists engaged in research into fusion power have discovered a new mode of plasma that could help stabilize fusion reactions, making it easier to generate the elusive form of clean electrical power.
The scientists’ findings, described as “a big breakthrough in steady-state operation,” were detailed in an article published in the international journal Science Advances earlier this month.
According to their report, they found a new “super-I mode” of plasma during a recent record-setting operation of the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) in December 2021. The reactor is located in Hefei, China, and uses the torus-shaped Tokamak reactor design first invented in the Soviet Union.
Fusion power plants aim to capture the immense energy created when two atoms fuse together under pressure – the same reaction that makes stars like the sun shine. However, here on Earth, scientists are trying to recreate those conditions using powerful magnets to control plasma, the nature of which is expressed in waves that have different modes.
“There are all kinds of issues associated with very long pulse operation, and it’s very comforting for us at ITER to see that this has been achieved, even if it is on a much smaller device,” he added.
Song Yuntao, a researcher at the Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Hefei, China, and co-author of the study, explained that the discovery makes capturing useful energy in the reactor much easier.
While there has been a great deal of international cooperation on fusion power, which has the potential to replace radioactive, fission-powered nuclear power plants, as well as other forms of electrical generation, there is also international competition, too. In December, American scientists working at the US government-funded Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announced they had, for the first time, generated more energy using a fusion reaction than was put into it. However, the reaction was not sustained, and the overall energy consumed by the experiment far exceeded the reaction’s output.
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