South Korean artificial sun sets world record, runs for 20 seconds at 100 million degrees

This year, KSTAR tackled some of these challenges by overcoming one of its plasma operation modes, the Internal Transport Barrier (ITB).

Director Si-Woo Yoon of the KSTAR Research Center at the KFE said: “The technologies required for long operations of 100 million- plasma are the key to the realization of fusion energy, and the KSTAR’s success in maintaining the high-temperature plasma for 20 seconds will be an important turning point in the race for securing the technologies for the long high-performance plasma operation, a critical component of a commercial nuclear fusion reactor in the future.”

Yong-Su Na, professor at the Department of Nuclear Engineering, SNU, said: “The success of the KSTAR experiment in the long, high-temperature operation by overcoming some drawbacks of the ITB modes brings us a step closer to the development of technologies for the realisation of nuclear fusion energy.”

The KSTAR began operating last August and has conducted a total of 110 plasma experiments.

The results will be presented at the IAEA Fusion Energy Conference in May next year.

source: express.co.uk