"Overcoming the 'Cursed 300 Seconds' to Create an 'Artificial Sun'"

Korea-China-Japan Trilateral, 10th Asia-Pacific Transport Group Meeting
Sharing Major Research Achievements and Discussing Challenges in Nuclear Fusion Energy

Researchers from Korea, China, and Japan joined forces to tackle the challenges of developing artificial sun technology.

China is showcasing artificial sun and nuclear fusion technology at the China Pavilion of the Astana Expo.

The Korea Institute of Fusion Energy, together with Hanyang University, will host the 10th Asia-Pacific Transport Working Group Meeting (APTWG) from the 13th to the 16th at Hanyang University campus in Seoul. This event serves as a platform for sharing and communicating research achievements on fusion plasma transport physics, a crucial research topic for realizing fusion energy.

Fusion research aims to reproduce hydrogen fusion, the fundamental source of the sun’s thermal energy, on Earth to generate electricity. One gram of tritium and helium can produce energy equivalent to 8 tons of oil. Unlike nuclear power, it is a clean fuel that emits only harmless neutrons. It is one of the potential alternatives to free humanity from energy problems. The core challenge is to stably confine ultra-high-temperature plasma at 100 million degrees Celsius inside a fusion reactor for a long time. However, in the high-temperature plasma state, transport phenomena occur where plasma particles or heat escape from the reactor due to instabilities or turbulence, making long-term operation difficult. Therefore, various studies to understand fusion plasma transport phenomena are actively underway worldwide. Korea set a world record in 2021 by operating 100 million-degree plasma for 32 seconds. Experts believe that breaking the 300-second barrier is necessary for continuous operation. Another challenge is achieving the ignition stage, where a self-sustaining fusion chain reaction can be triggered without additional energy input. It is expected to be possible once the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), being constructed in southern France by seven countries including Korea, is completed in the late 2020s to early 2030s. Recently, Korea has started designing power generation technology for commercialization in the 2050s, assuming ITER’s completion and ignition success.

In particular, Korea, China, and Japan are leading research on fusion plasma physics phenomena, including transport phenomena, using fusion devices. APTWG was established in 2010 to promote plasma turbulence transport research and collaborative studies among Asian countries, centered on these three Northeast Asian countries. It is a venue to share the latest research results on fusion plasma transport, covering various experimental results and analyses from fusion devices, fusion plasma physics theories, and simulations. It provides information for conducting leading fusion plasma physics research.

On the 13th, the 10th Asia-Pacific Transport Group Meeting for Korea-China-Japan Fusion Energy Development Cooperation was held at Hanyang University campus in Seoul.

Especially at this meeting, various presentations and discussions will be held based on detailed topics such as isotope effects on fusion plasma transport, plasma turbulence transport physics, magnetohydrodynamic stability, and fast particle transport.

Yoo Seok-jae, President of the Korea Institute of Fusion Energy, said, “We are very pleased to host this event in Korea for the first time in a while, after it had been held online due to COVID-19. We hope this will be an opportunity to promote exchanges among fusion researchers in Asian countries and actively share the latest fusion research topics.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.