South Korea is moving like a missile

The road to a destination is difficult as it is nuclear fusion The work must necessarily be full of small openings. Achievements that may seem modest, but are actually milestones that bring us a little closer to an ambitious goal that has no other purpose than to help us. Solve our energy needs without continuing to emit greenhouse gases.

in this context ITER is getting a lot of attention. It is understood that this is so. After all, it is a project of enormous scope, moreover, led by the European Union. In fact, this organization jointly bears nearly 50% of the total cost of a plan in which the United States, Russia, China, Japan, India and South Korea also participate.

However, commitment from the general source of nuclear fusion does not only condense at ITER. And it’s not just the European Union either. Not much less. Europe takes aim Very important scientific milestones, but there are other countries with very high bids, which, precisely, do not move in the orbit of the West. In fact, two of them, perhaps the most useful, are China and South Korea.

Two economic and scientific forces worth pursuing

Last mid-April, I had the opportunity to speak with Carlos Alegildri, who at the time was the Director General of CIEMAT (if you’re curious, you can read The article that captures our conversation). During this talk we discussed many issues related to nuclear fusion, and one of them was specifically The key role that China is already playing de facto As a major contributor to the development of this specialty. Here is the reflection he shared with me that day:

China contributes in a very important way to ITER, and in addition, it has begun the final stage of designing a machine that promises to produce electrical energy and from where it can interfere with ITER. The latter is a huge project, but it is an experimental reactor and will not produce a single kilowatt hour.

However, it is possible that in 2040s China We already have a fusion machine Capable of producing electricity. It probably won’t be much, but it could prove the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of this technology from an energy point of view.

The achievement that Carlos Alegildri had in mind when he said these words occurred in the Chinese province of Anhui at the end of 2021. It is the He’féi Experimental Fusion Reactor. He managed to break his own record The temperature when the plasma is stable at 70 million degrees Celsius for a period of not less than seventeen minutes. To maintain nuclear fusion between the nuclei of deuterium and tritium, which constitute the fuel that will be used in these reactions, it is necessary to maintain a temperature of 150 million degrees Celsius without concern.

The information available to us tells us that Chinese scientists still have a lot of work to do, but we should not overlook the fact that this country’s commitment to nuclear fusion is much newer than that of the European Union, the United States or Russia. , And the up to stages With astonishing frequency. Interestingly, South Korea is following a path similar to that of China. Indeed, only a few days ago, this Asian country announced a very important achievement in the field of nuclear fusion.

It is the research team at Seoul University led by Professor Young Soo Na . I managed to keep the plasma Inside the reactor discharge chamber tokamak KSTAR of these facilities at a temperature 100 million degrees Celsius for 30 seconds. It may seem like a very short time, but in fact it is a major advance if we consider that, as with China, its approaches to nuclear fusion research through magnetic confinement are much less comprehensive than that of the great powers.

No other nuclear fusion project has a scope comparable to ITER today. And he might not be the one you’ll get in the medium term experimental, which will be the experimental reactor that will inherit developments that, if all goes well, will be incorporated into ITER. However, as Carlos Alegildri predicted, there is a possibility that some Asian economic and scientific powers are already pushing hard for nuclear fusion. Reaching the goal by From the European Union, the United States or Russia.

Cover Photo: Michelle McAgnan

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