China Made an Artificial Star

HEFEI, CHINA — China is creating an artificial star that burns at temperatures eight times hotter than our sun by replicating its energy-generating, hydrogen fusion process on Earth, according to Science Alert.

The sun’s heat ensures hydrogen nuclei move at high speeds and its mass and gravity limit the space available, inducing collisions which generate massive amounts of energy, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak in Hefei, China, works by recreating these conditions, using magnetic coils to hold superheated streams of hydrogen plasma in place, according to Science Alert.

One Zero explains that once the hydrogen is floating inside the magnetized chamber, it’s showered with an electromagnetic current that strips the atoms from their electrons, forms a ‘plasma,’ and then heats that plasma up.

As China’s ‘star’ can’t compress the resulting plasma to the same extent as the sun, the particles must be heated more to increase the chances of collisions. In May it reached a record plasma temperature of 120 million degrees Celsius for 101 seconds.

[peekasnooze]

They already made fakes of everything else, why not stars too?

[dimplegaming]

When are they going to build buildings that don't collapse due to a wind gust?

[wildshepherd]

Taking next gen nuclear systems seriously is the only reasonable timeline to get carbon emission levels where we need them. All about the thorium molten salt reactors because of how much safer they are, best shot so far. Along with waste reburn systems.

[crossbraun]

So...what would happen if this artificial star goes critical?

[j.v.]

As far as propaganda goes, this is good propaganda. sigh

[daniel-zhnjyny]

The country with buildings that collapse suddenly is working on an artificial star. What could go wrong ?

[KyleSmith-iwbu]

soooo tell me what happens if this thing goes boom…

[SenatorSlime]

Haven't the us been experimenting the exact same thing?

[efilwv]

I guess we better learn to speak Mandarin

[MrKirua]

1:04 wrong the record still belongs to team of scientists from princeton university over 500M degrees

[enysuntra]

Thorium MSRs "have a lesser danger of explosive meltdowns because of their lesser pressure" WHAT?!?

The MSR has a melted core from the start. From the start, the key safety measure is an actively cooled plug betweent the reactor and containment in a non-critical geometry. If something goes wrong, if that not already happened the active cooling can be switched off, the plug melts and the MOLTEN-salt core flows into containment where due to its geometry the nuclear reaction stops. A "meltdown" does not occur because molten is the operational state of the core; part of the job description: MOLTEN Salt Reactor (MSR).

Yes, you can get weapons-grade Uranium from a Thorium reactor, but good luck extracting that in time from the molten salt core before it's destroyed. In theory, there is weapons-grade Uranium in the molten core, but in practice, it is very hard to extract; and if you are a state wanting weapons-grade material, the solution isn't to construct a Thorium MSR and painfully extract the weapons-grade material, but to build a Uranium rod reactor from the start.

Uranium rod reactors in fact were given preference because of the possibility to extract weapons-grade material; and since then, we are in a technological lock-in.

Another boon of the Thorium MSR: It eats nuclear waste; the screamingly radioactive nuclear waste IT spits out is a good sign: More radioactivity - shorter half-life, lesser radioactivity - longer half-life. Show me a building in your COUNTRY 300, 000-3, 000, 000 years old; that's how long nuclear waste storage for Uranium rod waste must hold. Then show me a building 300 years old IN YOUR CITY; in Europe, there are many in almost every city, and even in the USA you will find many.

I am sorry, but everything you report as "new" from Red China safe the Thorium MSR already exists in Europe, here, there are international fusion research stations both for the Tokamak (ITER) and Stellarator (Wendelstein 7-X) principles. The ONE really great thing you'd be right to report about in the highest notes takes a background rôle here, the Thorium MSR prototype. First because it's something the West didn't build since the 1950s, and second because that really has the chance to become production-ready in 5-25 years.

[mrkqltr]

Why Do they have developing nations status

[FIREPHOTO]

There it is … let me know when it goes bad

[cannypride]

Isn't this just a Nuclear Reactor...? Not really new...

[danielcanmu]

If they made a sun they can make super powers

[dr.tetraminflakes]

OH MY GOD CHINA FOUND FUSION ENERGY!...…………….Welcome to the 1990's cultural revolution, few more year you might discover destiny's child, backstreet boys and NSYNC, truly a great leap forward.

[daniel-zhnjyny]

Just tell us when it'll be finished, we need to know how much we have until the end of the world :)

[IIIIII]

I nominate the artificial star to be named after Paris Hilton or another celebrity whose fame was manufactured artificially.