Nuclear Fusion Breakthroughs!

In order to achieve nuclear fusion, naturally unstable plasma needs to be harnessed. This plasma uses less resources than nuclear fission which is the most commonly used method of generating nuclear energy at current operating nuclear plants, and also does not produce radioactive waste. For a long time scientists have been working towards creating a method that can sustainably hold and generate energy from nuclear fusion, although that in itself has been a struggle.

Recently, by using a tokamak reactor, French scientists from the WEST have managed to maintain the unstable plasma for 22 minutes, beating the previous record from Chinese scientists by 4.4 minutes! By achieving this record breaking time, scientists are slowly getting closer to the possibility of achieving even longer plasma durations at higher temperatures that could one day produce more energy than it consumes in its production! Scientists are hoping to continue on experiments and explore the effects of a longer duration of maintaining nuclear fusion on the equipment and the tokamak reactor itself!

Photo of a Tokamak Reactor!