Bulk Pure Tungsten boosts ‘Big Breakthrough’ of “Artificial Sun”

With the help of a more powerful bulk pure tungsten, from the “Artificial Sun” to the orbital bombardment concept – our country claims a ‘big breakthrough’ with nuclear fusion reactor.

Chinese scientists claim to have set a world record not long ago by superheating a plasma loop to temperatures five times higher than the sun and recently made a new technological breakthrough that could potentially be used in a nuclear fusion reactor.

According to SCMP, a pure, more powerful form of tungsten has been developed that could be used in kinetic energy weapons and fusion reactors.

(Source: EurAsian Times)

Developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the strong bulk pure tungsten will be used in the most demanding applications.

To increase the ductility of tungsten products in practical applications, soft elements such as nickel, copper or iron must be added, according to the report. In a paper published last month in Acta Materialia, a top journal on metallic materials, a research team led by Professor Wu Xuebang of the Hefei Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences said that bulk pure tungsten produced using a more advanced process have a tensile strength of 1.35 gigapascals at room temperature, which is stronger than most current tungsten alloys.

The SCMP quoted the scientists involved in the study as saying, "The higher the purity of tungsten, the lower the risk of fusion energy production."

The research is being supported in part by China's nuclear fusion reactor program, according to the researchers. The plan is to complete and begin generating electricity from an experimental fusion reactor around 2040, according to a scientist involved in the project.

A massive doughnut-shaped device known as a tokamak uses extremely high temperatures to heat hydrogen isotopes into plasma, fusing them together and producing energy that, if harnessed, would require only a small amount of fuel and produce little to no radioactive waste.

China's " Artificial Sun," the HL-2M fusion reactor, generates electricity by compressing hydrogen with a high magnetic field until a plasma with a temperature of more than 150 million degrees Celsius is formed.

It is ten times hotter than the Sun's nucleus and generates a lot of energy when the atoms fuse together. Magnets and super-cooling techniques are used to keep the plasma stable.

In addition, the tokamak is one of several magnetic confinement devices being developed for the production of controlled thermonuclear fusion power. Last May, China set a new record for maintaining an experimental advanced superconducting tokamak (EAST) at 120 million degrees Celsius for 101 seconds and 160 million degrees Celsius for 20 seconds, a key step toward commissioning a nuclear fusion reactor, according to the Global Times.

Through nuclear fusion, a thermonuclear reaction similar to that occurring in the sun, China's artificial sun could provide an almost unlimited supply of clean energy.

The country has been working to shift to cleaner forms of energy to meet its commitment to reduce carbon emissions made at COP26 in Glasgow. An enhanced fusion reactor combined with malleable and more powerful bulk pure tungsten is expected to help meet this effort.

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