NUCLEAR FUSION

A new world record is set for stable nuclear fusion operation

Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) succeeds in maintaining high-temperature plasma for 20 seconds

Almost one year ago, I wrote about how China was endeavoring to make 2020 the year when it achieves nuclear fusion via its artificial sun — called the HL-2M Tokamak. The production of stable nuclear fusion energy has been a pipe dream for scientists. This complex process takes place naturally on our sun, which produces limitless amounts of sustainable energy. However, the process of joining two lighter atomic nuclei to form a heavier nucleus releases massive amounts of energy and the process is unstable and difficult to control.

Earlier in 2019 summer, Physicists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison created a “Mini Sun” to better understand the processes going on on our star. While projects like the HL-2M Tokamak project are trying to generate nuclear fusion energy by heating deuterium-tritium (two types of hydrogen) to insanely hot temperatures like 100 million degrees, others like HB-11 energy intend to create an unlimited source of clean, safe & reliable energy by using fuels that are abundant in nature, without producing radioactive waste.