KSTAR, Korea's superconduction Tokamak advanced research device, that is developed and operated for commercialization of nuclear fusion energy, which is expected to be a future energy source, has succeeded in raising plasma-centered ion temperature to more than 100 million degrees.
The KSTAR research center of the National Fusion Research Institute said on Feb. 13 that through the KSTAR plasma experiment conducted from the end of August to December last year, it realized a super-high temperature high-performance plasma that maintains ion temperature of 100 million degrees or more, the most important operating condition of nuclear fusion.
KSTAR is a Tokamak-type nuclear fusion device called the artificial sun. Tokamak is a self-closing nuclear fusion device that uses a powerful magnetic field to confine super-high temperature plasma to create an artificial environment so that nuclear fusion reactions take place like the sun.
KSTAR conducts experiments to create and maintain ultra-high temperature plasma where fusion reactions take place and lead research and development to realize fusion power.
Plasma ion temperature of 100 million degrees is seven times the temperature of the center of the sun, and is considered as the optimum temperature at which fusion reactions between deuterium and triode, the method of nuclear fusion generation to be applied in the future. KSTAR is the first time that succeeded in operating 100 million degree of plasma ion temperature as a superconducting Tokamak fusion device.
"As the KSTAR has shown annual progress over the past 10 years, the development of nuclear fusion energy commercialization technology is accelerating further thanks to technologies surrounding the 4th industrial revolution," said an official of the National Fusion Research Institute.
