Scientists at the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) have set a new record by maintaining a superheated plasma flow for 30 seconds in their tokamak reactor.
The underlying concept of fusion energy is to replicate the processes occurring inside the Sun. Enormous gravitational forces combined with extreme temperatures and pressures create plasma, where nuclei collide at high speeds, producing helium and releasing energy.
The KSTAR reactor is referred to as Korea’s “artificial sun.” (Photo: Michel Maccagnan)
The tokamak is designed to recreate this process on Earth with a series of coils surrounding the donut-shaped reactor, using magnetic fields to contain the hot plasma, which can reach millions of degrees Celsius, for a sufficient duration to allow nuclear fusion to occur. Many experimental devices are operational worldwide, and the KSTAR has achieved significant milestones.
The construction of the reactor was completed in 2007, and KSTAR produced its first plasma flow in 2008. In 2016, KSTAR set a world record by maintaining a plasma temperature of 50 million degrees Celsius for 70 seconds. This record was broken in 2017 by China’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), which achieved a duration of 102 seconds.
However, the goal of such devices is to heat plasma to over 100 million degrees Celsius. In 2018, KSTAR achieved this for 1.5 seconds, extended to 8 seconds in 2019, and then to 20 seconds in December 2020.
According to Business Korea, scientists working on the KSTAR project have taken another step forward by raising the record to 30 seconds. This result comes from optimizing the magnetic field and heating systems. The research team aims to maintain the plasma flow for 300 seconds by 2026 through upgrades to the power supply and using tungsten converters to prevent temperature increases at the inner walls of the plasma chamber.
