China carries out test of fusion reactor

Seattle Post-Intelligencer ^ | September 28, 2006 | ALEXA OLESEN

[neverdem]

ASSOCIATED PRESS

BEIJING -- Scientists on Thursday carried out China's first successful test of an experimental fusion reactor, powered by the process that fuels the sun, a research institute spokeswoman said.

China, the United States and other governments are pursuing fusion research in hopes that it could become a clean, potentially limitless energy source. Fusion produces little radioactive waste, unlike fission, which powers conventional nuclear reactors.

Beijing is eager for advances, both for national prestige and to reduce its soaring consumption of imported oil and dirty coal.

The test by the government's Institute of Plasma Physics was carried out on a Tokamak fusion device in the eastern city of Hefei, said Cheng Yan, a spokeswoman at the institute.

Cheng said the test was considered a success because the reactor produced plasma, a hot cloud of supercharged particles. She wouldn't give other details.

"This represents a step for humankind in the study of nuclear reaction," she said.

U.S. and other scientists have been experimenting with fusion for decades but it has yet to be developed into a viable energy alternative.

"I think it is a considerable step ahead for China," said Karl Heinz Finken, a senior scientist at the Institute for Plasma Physics in Juelich, Germany, who had no role in the Chinese research.

"China is speeding up with the development of nuclear fusion and I think at the moment they are making considerable progress," he said.

The Chinese facility is similar to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER, being built by a seven-nation consortium in Cadarache in southern France, according to state media. That reactor is due to be completed in 2015.

China is a partner in the ITER reactor, along with the European Union, the United States, Japan, Russia, India and South Korea.

A Tokamak reactor uses a doughnut-shaped magnetic field to contain the hot gas.

Several countries have produced plasma using a Tokamak or similar device, said Gabriel Marbach, deputy head of fusion research at the ITER facility. He said producing plasma was only one step toward the fusion that ITER aims to perform, and that the project could be helped by the Chinese experiments.

"It was important for China to show that it is part of the club, and that adds value to its participation in ITER," Marbach said.

"That is not to say that it is at the level of the Europeans or Americans," he said. However, he added, "We are rather admiring of the Chinese for conducting this test. It was conducted well, and they constructed (the machine) rather quickly."

China is the world's No. 2 oil consumer and its No. 3 importer, consuming at least 3.5 million barrels of foreign oil per day last year.

China plans to build dozens of nuclear power plants and is trying to promote use of cleaner alternative energy sources such as natural gas, wind power and methanol made from corn.

---

AP correspondent Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

[neverdem]

In this photo released by China's official Xinhua news agency, a scientist debugs the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) in the Institute of Plasma Physics of Chinese Academy of Sciences in Hefei, east China, on Thursday September 28, 2006. Scientists on Thursday carried out China's first successful test of an experimental fusion reactor, powered by the process that fuels the sun, a research institute spokeswoman said. China, the United States and other governments are pursuing fusion research in hopes that it could become a clean, potentially limitless energy source. Fusion produces little radioactive waste, unlike fission, which powers conventional nuclear reactors. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Cheng Li)

Test of China's new thermonuclear fusion reactor successful Has an interesting thread, but it less informative than this AP article, IMHO.

[Dr. Marten]

Kudos to China!

It's been a long time since they've contributed anything of significance to the international community, this would be a great step.

[operation clinton cleanup]

Are they just recreating experiments with Soviet stuff that was already done in the 1980's?

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Did the Chinese steal the technology (Chinese people can be very smart, and they have long history of innovation, but recently they've become notorious for stealing technology, and their rapid catch-up seems to be a result of this.)?

[HiTech RedNeck]

Getting a plasma in a Tokamak isn't that hard to do. Getting a sustained or repeated reaction that yields more than it sinks is another question.

[NicknamedBob]

"Are they just recreating experiments with Soviet stuff that was already done in the 1980's?"

To some extent they are. The photograph shows that the EAST device is not on the scale of the one planned for Europe.

However, they are also developing the art of producing and using superconductive magnets, and that will prove quite useful.

[DB]

That and they killed off their genetic lines that had any intelligent thought that ran counter to the state...

[Dr. Marten]

at least they are working on it. THat's more than we're doing...

They have an edge over us...they're not ruled by big oil companies...

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

The so-called Cultural Revolution was harsh, but there are still plenty of smart Chinese people.

[neverdem]

The Sting of Ignorance

Study confirms suicide rates dropping

FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.

[operation clinton cleanup]

I'm concerned we may fall behind in this technology, but I don't think the Chi-Coms have the resources to make any breakthroughs anytime soon. (I hope!)

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

The United States is part of the ITER project (as are the Chinese, btw). That is the most advanced fusion project so far. The U.S. can already do what China has done.

[John Will]

Name one case in history where a civlization did not try to steal the secret technology of the competing civlizations.

[NicknamedBob]

There are two avenues which need further study. One is the materials science which will permit the squeezing and energy injection that could make a Tokamak design practical.

The other is the ability to extract the produced energy in a practical way.

Both of these things could well be studied using this antiquated design.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

The comment was not an insult to the Chinese (which you could seem to think if the huffiness in your comment was read properly). Other peoples have taken technology. Some people of European descent would be smart to understand that Columbus wouldn't have made it to the New World, and the Americas wouldn't have been successfully colonized without tools such as the compass, gunpowder, astrolabe, triangular sails, etc.

However, what some of the Chinese have done was explicitly bad--it was not simply some curious European who picked up some knowledge here and there. They have bribed for American technology, and Chinese people working for American companies have illegally given away technology. Chinese illegally recorded the inner workings of German maglev trains. Are there records of explorers illegally taking technology from the Chinese? Indeed, Western missionaries gave China the first steam-powered train--that was not stealing. A close analogy would be Americans stealing the technology for one of the textile machines.

A Briton memorized every part of the machine and then immigrated to the U.S. Once there, he replicated the machine and others copied him. This in and of itself would not have been stealing if it weren't for the fact that the British government had decreed that knowledge of how to make the textile machine was not to be removed from Britain. So for stealing technology, it is if there are laws prohibiting the transfer of that technology.

So, to go back to your question: besides this American example, can you name another straightforward case of technology theft (not technology transfer)?

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

one of the first textile machines....

[operation clinton cleanup]

Whats the status of the Z-Machine? Is this a fusion test device, or something else?

[LibertarianInExile]

"Scientists on Thursday carried out China's first successful test of an experimental fusion reactor, powered by the process that fuels the sun, a research institute spokeswoman said."

Hogwash. I bet not ONE of those scientists was actually powered by the process that fuels the sun. 8)

[NicknamedBob]

That looks like something Dr. Emmet Brown thought up.

I can't really identify your picture, but it may be part of a laser-induced fusion experiment.

Who knows? We may end up injecting frozen deuterium pellets into a plasma stream. A little fire and ice for the future.

[operation clinton cleanup]

The experiment seems to have multiple applications, fusion being one.... amazing stuff going on at Sandia nonetheless.

http://www.sandia.gov/media/z290.htm