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Do you know the "artificial sun", do you know why human beings want to create another "sun"?
"I have a beautiful wish to sow the sun when I grow up", the friends who have heard this children's song, the childhood wish has really come true. Scientists "sow" a sun with enormous energy. In fact, this "sun" is not the other sun. It is a fully superconducting tokamak experimental device developed by the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Hefei Institute of Physical Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other scientific research units, commonly known as the "artificial sun". The "artificial sun" is a device that can provide energy based on the principle of solar nuclear fusion reaction, that is, an artificial controllable nuclear fusion device. This device is likely to become the main force in providing sufficient energy for human beings in the future!
"Artificial Sun" (Image: New Youth)
In fact, in the 1950s and 1960s, another "artificial sun" already existed in the world, and did anyone know what it was? The answer is the hydrogen bomb. The hydrogen bomb explodes through the principle of nuclear fusion, but as a weapon, the nuclear fusion of the hydrogen bomb is uncontrollable, but the "artificial sun" we need is controllable nuclear fusion. In this way, it is able to provide us with energy continuously and safely.
Nuclear fusion is the process by which two lighter nuclei aggregate into one heavier one and release energy. The easiest fusion reaction in nature is the fusion of the isotopes of hydrogen, deuterium and tritium. The "artificial sun" is proposed on the basis of this principle, and the research and development of controlled nuclear fusion is a long-term, large-scale, high-investment and high-risk process.
Upgraded EAST inner vacuum chamber (Source: Popular Science China)
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Why are people willing to spend huge financial and material resources on "artificial sun" projects? What are its advantages?
First, the controlled nuclear fusion of raw materials are abundant, the main raw material of nuclear fusion is deuterium, deuterium in the earth's most abundant storage place is seawater, according to estimates, a liter of seawater in the deuterium element if all fusion, the energy released is equivalent to 300 liters of gasoline energy.
Second, the safety of controlled nuclear fusion is high, once the leakage or failure reaction, it will stop on its own, will not cause nuclear leakage or explosion like a nuclear power plant, and it will not produce nuclear waste and radiation pollution.
Just on December 31, 2021, the continent's all-superconducting tokamak nuclear fusion experimental device (EAST) set a new record, achieving a running time of more than 1,000 seconds, which is currently the longest time in the world for high-temperature plasma in tokamak devices. Wang Teng, an engineer at the "Artificial Sun" team, mentioned: "If one day nuclear fusion can generate electricity, I hope that the first light will be lit on the soil of China!" ”
Press Conference (Photo credit: New Youth)
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Inner Mongolia Science and Technology Museum "Artificial Sun" exhibition
If you are interested in the above content, you can wait until after the opening of the museum, come to the "Universe and Aerospace Science and Technology and Future" exhibition hall on the third floor of the Inner Mongolia Science and Technology Museum, through the cross-sectional structure model of the Tokamak experimental device, understand its operation principle, and satisfy your curiosity about the "artificial sun".
Text source: Inner Mongolia Science and Technology Museum Exhibition Ministry of Education comprehensively compiled from Baidu Encyclopedia, Xinhua News Agency Douyin