For the sake of China's "artificial sun"

On March 19, 2006, the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced the ten most important developments in science and technology in China for 2006. The greatest breakthrough was the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), a superconducting non-circular section nuclear fusion experiment device built at the Hefei Institute of Plasma Physics, also known as an "artificial sun".

However, it is not widely known that scientists are endeavoring to build another tokamak at the Southwestern Institute of Physics (SIP) in Chengdu.

55 million degrees centigrade: the highest temperature on record

Past the Institute's central control room 每 where there are dozens of computers 每 in the fusion science experiment room, there is a giant device occupying two-thirds of the central space. The oval-shaped device looks like an upside down funnel, with several triangular "horns" stretching out from around the "funnel". It gives the overall impression of a huge five-pointed star. A red flag hangs on the front of the device. The poster beside it reads "China HL-2A".

One of China's major scientific projects, "China HL-2" is a "key component of future fusion reactors," said Yang Qingwei, director of the Office of Tokamak Experimentation and Diagnosis of SIP. It was in here that scientists generated the highest temperatures in Chinese history.

The day history was made

"Electricity supply, levels, heating＃is everything ready?"

"Yes. No problem. We can start now." Recently, Professor Duan Xuru, the principal coordinator of the experiments, gave the order to "start-up" through control officers.

When temperatures reached 55 million degrees Celsius, there were a few seconds of silence and then the more than 100 people in the control room suddenly started shouting and jumping for joy.

"This is more than double the temperature of 22 million degrees Celsius we reached a few months ago!" Duan was shocked and shed tears of happiness. "It is just like I just have my own baby," he observed.

The new record temperature puts China one step closer towards its target temperature of "hundreds of millions degrees centigrade", a temperature that is needed to "ignite" the fusion device.

CAS academic Li Zhengwu, who pioneered China's controlled fusion research, said that this was "dazzling progress". To achieve this result, scientists at SIP conducted over 2,000 experiments and discharged the experimental device more than 6,000 times in 2006.

Over 40 years of unremitting efforts

In 1965, the oldest Chinese fusion research unit 每 the Heilongjiang Institute of Nuclear Physics 每 was relocated to Sichuan province. After being renamed several times and relocated twice, the Southwestern Institute of Physics was formally established. President Pan Chuanhong recalls conditions being very poor. All the information scientists had at the time was a photograph of a nuclear fusion reactor device and several simple parameters.

After 20 years of hard work, SIP built 17 smallish controlled nuclear fusion experimental devices, accounting for four-fifths of all such devices available in China. "The smallest was only this big," said Pan, gesturing, indicating that the device was small enough to be placed on a desk. In 1984, China succeeded in developing its biggest controlled experimental device 每 "HL-1". "From then on, China's name appeared in the world's nuclear fusion research report."

In 1994, SIP successfully improved the "HL-1". The plasma discharge lasted for four seconds and generated an electrical current of 320 kilo-amperes. This brought China in line with world standards. "At first, we were like blind men feeling an elephant. Then we followed and imitated others. Finally we were able to conduct research independently. Not every step has been easy," Pan Chuanhong said emotionally.

Scientists at SIP know that eventually, the "HL-1" will be retired. As part of the 7th Five-Year Plan (1986-1990), SIP proposed completing the "HL-2" early in the 21st century. The program is scheduled to be completed in two phases. The first is called "HL-2A".

In 2002, China successfully built the HL-2A Tokamak device on the main engine of a Tokamak device gifted to it by Germany.

"We can develop the main engine by ourselves. However, it would cost hundreds of millions of yuan," Pan said. "Furthermore, we have another goal: developing our "trump card" on the basis of the imported key component."

An artificial sun: rising in Chengdu in 2035

In the search for alternative sources of energy, humankind has spent 50 years developing an "artificial sun". Hundreds of experimental devices have been built, in which more 12,000 people have involved. Annual investment in this research exceeds US$2 billion.

China, the European Union, South Korea, Russia, Japan, India and the United State, are members of the ITER plan (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor). According to the plan, a demo test reactor will be built around 2035.

Here Pan describes his "Chengdu dream". "The ITER is indeed located in Europe. However, it is quite possible for China to build a demonstration reactor in Chengdu by 2035. We have the ability. Chengdu also has the resolution. The rising of an artificial sun in Chengdu is not a joke!"

News Dictionary: "artificial sun" and Tokamak

Principle: exporting the energy generated during the process by artificially slowing the hydrogen bomb explosion, and converting the energy into electricity.

Keeping the fusion reaction stable and sustainable is an ongoing issue. A tokamak is needed. In Russian, "tokamak" refers to keeping a magnetic controlled fusion process stable. China's "HL-2A" adopts this same idea.

Experts say that although people usually call the nuclear fusion experimental device an "artificial sun", this is actually a misconception. A real "artificial sun" involves simulating the solar energy model by using a nuclear fusion reactor.

By People's Daily Online