China’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), also nicknamed “artificial sun,” set a new record on April 12. Scientists were able to generate and maintain super-hot and highly confined plasma for 403 seconds, breaking their previous record of 101 seconds set back in 2017.
South China Morning Post quotes Song Yuntao, director of the Institute of Plasma Physics in the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which built EAST: “The main significance of this new breakthrough lies in its ‘high-confinement mode,’ under which the temperature and density of the plasma increase significantly,” Song said.
“The record is also a big step forward for our team in terms of fundamental physics research, fusion engineering, and project operation and maintenance,” Song was quoted as saying. China recently decided to place more emphasis on fundamental scientific research, in addition to technological innovation, in which development of fusion energy would be key.
