Korea’s KSTAR Artificial Sun sets new record of 100 million degrees Celsius in 20 seconds

To begin with, it’s worth telling about KSTAR. Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research, sounds a little clumsy in Russian, the Korean Institute for Advanced Study of the Superconducting Tokamak or the Korean Experimental Tokamak on Superconducting Magnets. Tokamak is a toroidal device for magnetic confinement of plasma in order to achieve the conditions necessary for the flow of controlled thermonuclear fusion. Quite simply, the temperature of the plasma is so high that no material from planet Earth can withstand it. And you need to experiment. Therefore, scientists have solved the problem in an original way.

The idea itself is not new; the best minds of mankind have been working on such studies since the middle of the 20th century. By the way, the very concept of tokamak was invented by Soviet scientists. And the first such device was built in the USSR. Of course, it is better to familiarize yourself with these concepts on your own, because it is quite interesting and informative.

Why is this research important? The answer is simple enough. It is possible a source energy of the future. Instead of traditional coal, peat, oil, nuclear power plants, hydroelectric power plants, “wind turbines”, etc. At this stage, there is no need to talk about the commercial use of thermonuclear fusion. All of this is too complicated, expensive, or not well understood. That is why the new record of the Korean tokamak KSTAR, 20 seconds at a temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius, shows that scientists continue their efforts to provide people with a cheap and almost unlimited source of energy. Who knows, maybe in 20-30 years thermonuclear power plants will become the same everyday phenomenon as nuclear power plants or hydroelectric power plants.

A source: digitaltrends