That's cute, Germany – China shows the world how fusion is done

[Dungeness]

That's cute, Germany – China shows the world how fusion is done
Heats hydrogen more than three times hotter than the sun

6 Feb 2016 at 07:01, Iain Thomson
Days after the German chancellor triggered the creation of hydrogen plasma for less than a second, China has announced that one of its fusion reactors has broken the record for plasma creation.

On Friday the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced that its boffins had created the 102-second plasma burn in its Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) at Hefei, capital city of east China's Anhui Province.

During the experiment, sensors recorded the plasma's temperature at 50 million degrees Celsius (90 million degrees Fahrenheit). That's more than three times as hot as the core of the sun, which NASA estimates is a toasty 15 million degrees Celsius (27 million degrees Fahrenheit).

The Chinese experiment is a major step forward in fusion research, but the Middle Kingdom magicians have much bigger plans. They hope the EAST instrument will eventually be able to sustain plasma for 1,000 seconds at twice the current temperature.

Hot stuff

It's hoped the Chinese experiment will be valuable help in building the much-delayed International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor in France. China is a major contributor to the project, which has so far cost over $14bn and is six years behind schedule.

China has expressed irritation at the slow pace of the international project and is conducting its own research in parallel. Unless the international team pulls its socks up, China might well have usable fusion power before the rest of the world.

That's cute, Germany – China shows the world how fusion is done • The Register

 

[Dungeness]

China’s ‘man-made sun’ sees ground-breaking progress
Beijing, Feb 5:

A team of Chinese scientists in Hefei, capital city of east Anhui province, has made an unprecedented breakthrough on an energy generation device that will bring it one step closer to transforming energy into stable, sustainable and controllable resources.

Towards the end of January, the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) fusion device, nicknamed “artificial sun”, made a 102-second-long pulse plasma discharge at a central electron temperature of 50 million degrees-plus, the People’s Daily reported on Friday.

This is the longest plasma discharge time recorded in all the Tokamak fusion devices in the world.

Led by the Chinese scientists at the Institute of Plasma Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Heifei, the EAST fusion device has brought it one step closer to the goal of 1,000-second-long pulse plasma discharge at a central electron temperature of 100 million degrees-plus.

The name “artificial sun” was given because the aim of the device is to generate energy like the sun.

Under high pressure and high temperature, fusion reactions will take place from inside to outside of the “artificial sun”. Such fusion reactions will give rise to a great deal of energy to enable the “artificial sun” continuously emit light and heat.

However, fusion reactions on the Sun are uncontrollable and destructive, just like h-bomb explosion seen on the earth. EAST serves to transform such energy into a stable, sustainable and controllable resource. (IANS)

China's 'man-made sun' sees ground-breaking progress - OdishaSunTimes.com

 

[dyingtoknow]

It's about time China started contributing to the word's scientific development. For a country of over 1 billion people who possess an average IQ that is the highest in the world (or 2nd highest if you include some sects of Jews) they have not really produced anything of note for hundreds of years. They'll never be a superpower by just being the world's factory.

 

[Dungeness]

It's about time China started contributing to the word's scientific development. For a country of over 1 billion people who possess an average IQ that is the highest in the world (or 2nd highest if you include some sects of Jews) they have not really produced anything of note for hundreds of years. They'll never be a superpower by just being the world's factory.

It is just matter of time. While the superpower spending more than 50% of federal budget on killing machine, China is pouring a lot of money in R&D. With "the highest average IQ" and millions no-nonsense scientists working day and night. we are going to see more and more Chinese contributions to the humanity in coming years.

 

[dyingtoknow]

Who cares about being a superpower?

The current world superpower (USA) runs away crying from undeveloped countries like North Korea. What's the point?

China cares.

Besides, we can't have a situation where the world's progress is dependent on 600million westerners (not even 1/10 of the world's population.)
At present if the West falls/destroys itself we stagnate as a species. Nearly all the world's major scientific discoveries, it's best technology and innovative ideas still come from the West.

Having 1billion Chinese pushing us forward in science and technology is both a safeguard of the so-called "golden age of knowledge" and a multiplier for how fast we can push ourselves into the future.

Look at what only 120million Japanese can achieve. Times that by 10, I hope that's China. Not just a factory.

 

[Homo Sapiens]

The fundamental problem with fusion to date is that energy input is always greater than the energy output. Unless and until scientists solve this basic problem, fusion energy will always remain illusory.

 

[FairAndUnbiased]

China cares.

Besides, we can't have a situation where the world's progress is dependent on 600million westerners (not even 1/10 of the world's population.)
At present if the West falls/destroys itself we stagnate as a species. Nearly all the world's major scientific discoveries, it's best technology and innovative ideas still come from the West.

Having 1billion Chinese pushing us forward in science and technology is both a safeguard of the so-called "golden age of knowledge" and a multiplier for how fast we can push ourselves into the future.

Look at what only 120million Japanese can achieve. Times that by 10, I hope that's China. Not just a factory.

China is the 2nd largest publisher of scientific articles in the world and the 2nd largest holder of WIPO patents.

Also, as someone in research, we're looking at stagnation within 50 years since we are reaching close to the limits of what materials can handle. Quantum computation, large scale engineering and fusion/ultra efficient photovoltaics might bring us another 100 years of progress if they even work, but there are very hard limits set by relativity, quantum mechanics, thermodynamics and solid state physics.

It is also unlikely that any new theory will emerge to challenge relativity, quantum mechanics, solid state physics and thermodynamics since in every case in the past, a new theory has shown the old theory to still be valid under earth-like conditions and is just a special subset of the new theory.

 

[oprih]

Another amazing work from China, keep it up!

 

[Schutz]

It is just matter of time. While the superpower spending more than 50% of federal budget on killing machine, China is pouring a lot of money in R&D. With "the highest average IQ" and millions no-nonsense scientists working day and night. we are going to see more and more Chinese contributions to the humanity in coming years.

To be fair, we should have been seeing them for the past decade or so but I literally cant recall anything that wasnt just a work in progress or just a twist on someone elses work.

 

[Audio]

That's cute, the propaganda spin on this.
No doubt a nice achievement, even a record, but it is comparing first steps of the German reactor, basically test firings to make sure everything is in order with a machine that has been in opeeration for much longer and is conducting tests of such kind on a regular basis in cooperation with international partners.

Welcome development anyway.

 

[nang2]

To be fair, we should have been seeing them for the past decade or so but I literally cant recall anything that wasnt just a work in progress or just a twist on someone elses work.

Just a decade? That is way below my prediction. I am OK with Chinese keeping on learning from the rest of the world for another hundred years before becoming a major innovator. Mimic-ing is always the first step of learning. It is funny to see someone runs before he learns how to crawl.

 

[Oldman1]

It is just matter of time. While the superpower spending more than 50% of federal budget on killing machine, China is pouring a lot of money in R&D. With "the highest average IQ" and millions no-nonsense scientists working day and night. we are going to see more and more Chinese contributions to the humanity in coming years.

Thats funny considering where the internet came from. Exactly the killing machine! If it weren't for that, you wouldn't have internet.

 

[madmusti]

 

[Always Neutral]

That's cute, Germany – China shows the world how fusion is done
Heats hydrogen more than three times hotter than the sun

6 Feb 2016 at 07:01, Iain Thomson
Days after the German chancellor triggered the creation of hydrogen plasma for less than a second, China has announced that one of its fusion reactors has broken the record for plasma creation.

On Friday the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced that its boffins had created the 102-second plasma burn in its Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) at Hefei, capital city of east China's Anhui Province.

During the experiment, sensors recorded the plasma's temperature at 50 million degrees Celsius (90 million degrees Fahrenheit). That's more than three times as hot as the core of the sun, which NASA estimates is a toasty 15 million degrees Celsius (27 million degrees Fahrenheit).

The Chinese experiment is a major step forward in fusion research, but the Middle Kingdom magicians have much bigger plans. They hope the EAST instrument will eventually be able to sustain plasma for 1,000 seconds at twice the current temperature.

Hot stuff

It's hoped the Chinese experiment will be valuable help in building the much-delayed International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor in France. China is a major contributor to the project, which has so far cost over $14bn and is six years behind schedule.

China has expressed irritation at the slow pace of the international project and is conducting its own research in parallel. Unless the international team pulls its socks up, China might well have usable fusion power before the rest of the world.

That's cute, Germany – China shows the world how fusion is done • The Register

US is far ahead but it is classified and I have read a first class Int.R on that.

 

[FairAndUnbiased]

This is all part of a big plan:

note how energy is being put into fusion, photovoltaics and electric vehicles at the same time:

1. Fusion for large scale grid-linked power. Since fusion is unlikely to result in very high efficiency at first (if it works at all) and the plants will be costly, it makes sense for fusion and fission/coal/gas/photovoltaic/wind to all coexist until the other energy sources are retired or transferred to niche applications. In addition, fusion further takes a hit to efficiency for the need to extract deuterium, thus likely limiting it for grid linked power for factories and offices (small number of high intensity users).

2. Photovoltaics for rural, mobile and aerospace power. Basically, photovoltaics are light, do not require a grid and can be made mobile and building integrated. With reduced costs, they can be a power source for off-grid and residential applications where large number of users utilize low amounts of power each.

3. Electric cars are the final step: allowing electricity to directly drive transportation and eliminate reliance on chemical fuels.