本文原標題：《Artificial Sun rises in Hefei as green answer to energy demands》
By Wang WeiYi, Photo by Li Yiwen
Energy has long been sought after as the physical foundation of human activities. How to meet the soaring demand for natural resources that produce energy has become one of the most pressing challenges. Is there a once-and-for-all solution?
The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) currently being worked on by the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science may hold the answer.
Dubbed an 「Artificial Sun」, the facility is expected to generate huge amounts of energy through nuclear fusion of deuterium and tritium, which widely exist in sea water.
The process produces no radioactive waste or other unwanted byproducts. The ultimate goal is that if we can produce and hold onto hydrogen plasma for a certain period, we can harness the clean and practically limitless energy that fuels our Sun.
Independently designed and constructed by China, the EAST is 11 meters tall, with a diameter of 8 meters, and a weight of 400 tons. It began operation on beautiful Dongpu Island near Shushan Lake in the western suburbs of Hefei in 2006 and significant progress has been made.
In 2012, the facility broke the world record for producing steady-state long-pulse divertor plasmasfor more than 400 seconds and reproducible high-confinement mode plasmasfor more than 30 seconds.
In 2017, it generated hydrogen plasma at 49.999 million degrees Celsius and held onto it for an impressive 101.2 seconds, a new world record.
Last year, the Chinese 「Artificial Sun」 reached a core plasma temperature of over 100 million degrees Celsius – that's more than six times hotter than the interior of the Sun.
Although we're still far away from actually realizing fully controllable nuclear fusion to solve our energy problems, Chinese scientists are already walking at the forefront of the world in this area and will continue to forge ahead.
As Kuang Guangli, president of the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science once said, there are generations of people committing themselves to the project, all of whom cherish a nuclear fusion dream. Sticking to the dream is the core of the scientific spirit behind the EAST, which could be described as optimism, dedication and persistence.
責任編輯：李藝雯
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