China Successfully Tests Thermonuclear Fusion Rector
Shaveta Bansal - All Headline News Staff Writer Beijing, China (AHN) - Chinese scientists on Thursday successfully conducted their first test of a thermonuclear fusion reactor, which works on the same principle by which sun produces energy. The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) fusion reactor uses thermonuclear fusion process - joining nuclei of atoms together - to generate energy that can be tapped without producing greenhouse gases. Scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in the eastern Chinese city of Hefei, who tested the reactor, called the device "the first of its kind in operation in the world," Xinhua news agency said. The report said that the scientists had fused deuterium and tritium atoms at a temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius for nearly three seconds, but did not specify whether the reactor had succeeded at producing more energy than it consumed, the main obstacle cited in making fusion commercially viable. Unlike traditional nuclear fission reactors, which split atoms to create energy and produce dangerous radioactive waste, nuclear fusion reactors compress atoms at extremely high temperatures to generate energy that would produce very little pollution. Scientists theorize that a fully functional fusion reactor would provide cheaper, cleaner and endless energy and reduce the world's dependence on fossil fuels. China, alongside the European Union, Japan, South K |
