International experts praise China's new thermonuclear fusion reactor
(Xinhua) Updated: 2006-10-24 20:45
World leading nuclear scientists spoke highly of China's experimental
thermonuclear fusion reactor, which has been undergoing tests since September
28.
Twenty-nine scientists from Europe, the United States, Russia, Japan,
Republic of Korea and India have been invited to visit the Institute of Plasma
Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Hefei, capital city of
east China's Anhui Province, where the reactor is located.
The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) fusion reactor is
the only reactor of its kind in operation in the world, and the device has met
design standards, said a report delivered after the scientists visited the
reactor.
Unlike traditional nuclear fission reactors, which split atoms to create
energy and produce dangerous radioactive waste, the EAST uses nuclear fusion to
compress atoms at extremely high temperatures to generate energy that produces
very little pollution.
To date fusion reactors require more energy to start up than they can produce
and a viable one has yet to be made.
The report said it was a great achievement in fusion technology since EAST
was designed, built and put into operation in a very short time.
The Institute of Plasma Physics spent eight years and 200 million yuan (25
million U.S. dollars) on building its experimental reactor.
The EAST is part of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor
(ITER) program, which is initiated by the United States, France and Russia in
the 1980s, with a purpose of establishing the world's largest experimental
thermonuclear fusion reactor.
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