South Korea’s Breakthrough: Creating an Artificial Sun for Clean Energy

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South Korea finds success in creating an artificial sun. South Korea is ahead of its time, and the country has proven yet again that nothing is stopping it from winning the science race. Korean physicists have recently made one of the biggest breakthroughs of the decades. As they managed to create an artificial Sun in pursuit of producing clean energy.

Why Does the World Need Clean Energy?

The oil and gas the world usually uses tend to add to world pollution. Which ultimately ends with the term global warming. But our current mode of energy has always been an issue since it’s finite. We will eventually run out, not so sure about the Gulf countries. 

So South Korea thought, why not make your own energy instead of fighting the world for oil and gas? So by igniting a nuclear reaction, they were able to achieve temperatures seven times hotter than the sun. Our sun is one hot piece of a star. So seven times more than the sun is a lot to take.

Reed Richard said to Johnny and Fantastic 4: If his supernova temperature was exposed to the environment, it could burn up the Earth’s atmosphere and all life on Earth. So let’s be careful with that. Anyway, it looks like Koreans know what they’re doing. Their main goal is to mimic the natural reaction of the sun.

Korean Fusion Reactor Achieves Record High Temperatures

The feat was achieved by a team of scientists from Seoul National University along with the Korea Institute of Fusion Energy. Together they declare that the reactor at the Korean Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR).

KSTAR reached a milestone of hitting temperatures of more than 100 million degrees Celsius for 48 seconds. It is too hot to handle considering the real sun is around 15 million degrees at its core. 

It’s a big achievement not only for the Koreans but for Humanity as well. Next up could be an artificial Sun, meaning unlimited clean energy for the world. Renewable energy and clean energy are the future if we want to survive on this little blue planet. The world is already struggling to explore options for clean energy, but imagine having unlimited energy without any side effects. That’s what Korea’s artificial sun will achieve if everything goes according to plan.

South Korean scientists have used a strong nuclear reaction to produce temperatures about seven times hotter than the sun. 

The KSTAR has revealed a piece of news in which ion temperature is shown in color over 24 seconds. The research will also enable other enthusiasts to diagnose the plasma through the sound due to charge exchange spectroscopy ECE Mirov coil signals and Ts that are transformed into audible sounds. 

Nuclear Fusion

The study is completely focused on the process of joining Atomic nuclei by the self-heating of materials observed in stars, called nuclear fusion

This process is the pinnacle of producing clean and unlimited energy. If the study is successful, South Korean researchers think this technology can help harness the immense energy produced during a nuclear fusion reaction. The same energy can be converted into electricity without the baggage of radioactive waste. Which is the usual byproduct of nuclear reactors, or even greenhouse gas emissions, which are responsible for global warming

According to the Korea Institute of Fusion Energy president, Fusion Energy is almost a limitless dream energy source. It offers no high-level radiation waste, and the latest breakthrough means it’s not a dream anymore.

Are There Any Dangers Related to Creating an Artificial Sun? 

Nothing comes free these days, even the good stuff. When there’s a breakthrough in science, there’s always someone holding a cardboard sign saying the end is near. Well, it could be, but it’s time to rejoice in the fact that the Earth can have a limitless energy source, and we can finally say no to electricity bills because it’s limitless, right? The biggest danger of fusion power right now is the challenge of sustaining the reaction. We’ve only managed to keep it going for a little over 48 seconds.

The biggest challenge of them all would be to maintain the temperature over 100 million degrees. One misstep and boom, our atmosphere burns, and we wish it well. We don’t know that for sure because we’re just taking inspiration from movies anyway. 

The challenge would be the upscaling of the nuclear fusion reaction technology. Still, there’s a long way to go in terms of sustaining nuclear fusion outside of a laboratory. Despite decades of research, there hasn’t been a breakthrough that can make it possible yet.

The third challenge would be to operate the artificial sun at a stable level for a long time. Apart from the Koreans, the Chinese are also in line. Korea boasts the best artificial Sun. China hopes to build the world’s largest nuclear fusion reactor by 2035 with their Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak East (EAST) reactor. So, they still have a long way to go in terms of stabilizing the reactor enough to produce unlimited energy. For more recent goals, the Korean researchers hope to reach the same temperature they achieved for about 300 seconds by 2026. Coming up.