How China made an Artificial Sun?

The temperature of the Sun's core is 15 million degrees Celsius. We need the same degree of temperature to make a star or sun on Earth. We will also need 265 billion bar Sun's pressure and the gravity equal to the Sun's gravity which is equal to 274 meters per second square. We will have to meet these three bounding conditions if we want to make a sun. 2 hydrogen atoms fuse together to make plasma in the presence of these conditions but attaining these conditions is very difficult. We can get extreme temperatures to vibrate protons so fast to fuse them together but we can't achieve the same amount of pressure and gravity.

Scientists say that they will achieve a temperature 10 times higher than the Sun to vibrate the protons at the required speed to start a fusion reaction. China has recently performed an experiment for achieving 10 times greater temperature than Sun but China could only achieve 5 times greater temperature which is 70 million degrees centigrade.

There are three different kinds of reactors. The first nuclear reactor in China is called the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), a project of one trillion dollars that runs a reactor with the help of a magnetic field. This has been present in the Chinese city of Hyfai since 2006.

Tokamak Nuclear design comes in different shapes and sizes but two kinds of reactors are very famous among scientists. In both reactors, we confine the plasma but the method of confinement of plasma in both reactors is different. The first kind of reactor is Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF). 

The second kind of reactor is a magnetic confinement reactor that controls plasma with the help of a magnetic field. Plazma in this reactor looks like a donut and moves very fast in a circular path. For putting plasma in the chamber, we use superconductor magnets. This chamber is considered a part of Tokamak. we produce two kinds of magnetic fields i.e. internal magnetic field and external magnetic field.

The internal magnetic field that originates due to plasma is called Poloidal Magnetic Field and we know that plasma is a soup of charged particles that contains ions and electrons. When charged particles move extremely fast, both electric and magnetic fields are produced, and induced current also flows here due to the soup of charged particles. This induced current produces a magnetic field.

The external magnetic field for which we use superconductor electromagnets is called Toroidal Magnetic Field. Superconductor magnets are used to produce extreme currents. The electromagnet is made from a coil of copper wire. When current is produced, it becomes a magnet and things start to stick. When the current is turned off, things fall. If we want it to become a powerful magnet, then the resistance of the wire should be less so that a greater amount of current could flow to produce a greater magnetic field and things stick from far away. But how wire resistance can be reduced? Different atoms vibrate in the wire and create resistance. Therefore, to stop or reduce resistance, we will have to stop or reduce the vibration of atoms and this can be done by cooling them down or reducing their temperature. This is called superconductivity. This kind of magnet operates at -269 degrees Celsius due to which a greater amount of current flows and produces a greater magnetic field.

Deuterium and Tritium are fused together for fusion action to produce Helium which is done in East Test Facility. This is not a nuclear reactor but a test facility where different experiments are carried out.

We can check how long the fusion action can be kept stable? China has invented such a plasma that sustained five times greater temperatures than the core of the Sun for 17 and plus minutes which is a world record. This plasma retained a temperature of 70 million degrees Celsius. Now, we are preparing such a plasma that can remain stable at a temperature ten times greater than the core of the Sun and then we will move to the next steps of this experiment like fusion action, etc.

There are three kinds of heating techniques for plasma (hydrogen atoms). The first is the internal heating technique in which plasma moves fast and produces induced current and resistance. When current faces resistance in its path, heat is produced due to which our switches and wires become hot. In the same way, plasma also starts to get heat up but Ohmic heat becomes lesser as the plasma becomes warmer, the formula of which is given below.

Therefore, Ohmic Heating gradually becomes slow and we have to heat up plasma five times and in the future ten times greater than the core of the Sun. We need external heating which we get from Neutral Beam Injection in which we inject deuterium atoms that have a lot of energy. 

When deuterium atoms are injected, they start colliding with the other atoms and transfer their heat energy to them which increases the heat energy and temperature of the plasma. When we inject deuterium atoms, first they are passed through a sheet which is called a neutralizer so that we can get a charge from it. 

This is necessary because if we don't take charge of it, then the plasma will not allow uniform heating due to its strong magnetic field. Therefore, first, we neutralize it and then inject it to collide at different positions in the plasma to increase its temperature.

The third type of heating is called frequency heating. We use it in the microwave oven to heat things with high-frequency radiation. Temperature increases as the motion of the particles increases. Therefore, high-frequency radiations are produced that increase the temperature of the plasma. Plasma is a very dangerous thing and we have to contain it inside because of its high temperature.

Plasma moves in a circular path and is always kept away from the wall of the container because of the danger of damage. Plasma is kept in the center of the container and all this is done by the most powerful and precise magnetic fields which are controlled with the help of a computer.

Therefore, the outer walls are also made up of heat-resistant material so that the temperature can't travel outside. There are a lot of cooling systems installed to protect the reactor.

So, this is how China made a mini sun. This is a small part of one of the greatest projects in which 40 countries are participating.