http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200807/200807160021.html Updated July.16,2008 09:44 KST
Scientists Produce Plasma in Korean Fusion Reactor
Korean scientists have successfully demonstrated a Korean-made "artificial sun" nuclear fusion reactor for first time, becoming one of the world's first research reactors to create plasma. The Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Reactor, or KSTAR, succeeded in generating plasma that lasted 0.3 seconds at some 10 million degrees Celsius at the National Fusion Research Institute in Daejeon, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said on Tuesday.
Nuclear fusion reactors generate power by artificially triggering a process similar to the way the sun produces light, thus the term "artificial sun." Nuclear fusion is seen as a potential source of limitless clean energy because the two types of hydrogen used as raw materials, deuterium and tritium, are abundant, and harmful materials like greenhouse gases or high-level radioactive wastes are not produced.
A photo image of plasma forming numerous high-density electrons, generated in the KSTAR reactor. /Courtesy of the National Fusion Research Institute
But nuclear fusion requires plasma to remain at sun-like temperatures of millions of degrees for a certain amount of time. In order to gauge the possibility of commercialization, KSTAR has set the yardstick for plasma generation at 300 seconds and the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) at 500 -1,000 seconds. The successful generation of plasma at KSTAR is a significant step in this direction.
Dr. Kwon Myeon at NFRI said that KSTAR uses superconductors instead of copper wires to create a magnetic field so that the super-hot plasma does not touch the reactor's chamber walls. "The result of our research is drawing attention overseas as well because ITER works in the same way as KSTAR" he added.
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