Featured Image Credit: CEA
Topics: Science, France, Technology
Joe Yates
Growing tired of our plain old boring sun? Well, a world record development has been made in the making of an 'artificial sun'.
While you might argue we don't need another sun when we already have a perfectly good one, the reality of what the team of scientists hailing from the south of France have done is nothing short of incredible.
On Wednesday last week (February 12), the French Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission's WEST (which stands for the Environment in Steady-state Tokamak - with the W being the chemical symbol for tungsten) reactor maintained a plasma for more than 22 minutes.
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But what does it mean?
The purpose of its creation is to achieve unlimited clean energy for the mankind until the end of time, and it can be done through hydrogen isotopes - with a single gram yielding the same amount of energy as 11 tonnes of coal does.
The team behind this world record were able to ignite the same chemical reaction that powers the Sun.
Mastering this process won't only provide humanity with a limitless clean energy source, but it would also do so without leaving behind any hazardous waste like that seen from the fission process in nuclear power plants.
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An artificial sun reactor also has the possibility to avoid the pitfalls of other energy sources, as it would not produce the emissions like fossil fuels.
A nuclear fusion reactor would merge atomic nuclei, generating massive amounts of energy in the process that can be turned into electricity.
Director of Fundamental Research Anne-Isabelle Etienvre, of the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission said: "WEST has achieved a new key technological milestone by maintaining hydrogen plasma for more than twenty minutes through the injection of 2 MW of heating power.
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"Experiments will continue with increased power."
The idea of replicating the Sun’s nuclear fusion process hasn’t just been relegated to science fiction as scientists around the world have experimented continuously to make it a reality - dedicating 80 years to the process.
It occurs through the creation of plasma - which is the fourth state a material goes through after solid, liquid and gas. Deuterium and tritium are the two fuels used in the chamber that turn into plasma after they're heated to in excess of 50,000,000°C.
It the must stay in its plasma form without breaking apart, cooling down and turning back into gas.