"Dream Energy of the Future" Fusion Realization Accelerated... KSTAR Conducts Tungsten Environment Experiment

Accelerating the "Energy of the Future" with AI
KFE Takes on the Challenges of Fusion Science

The Korea Institute of Fusion Energy (President Oh Youngkuk, hereinafter referred to as KFE) announced on the 27th that it has launched the "2025 KSTAR Plasma Experiment," aiming to secure core plasma operation technologies essential for the commercial operation of future fusion reactors.

KSTAR (Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research) is a superconducting fusion research device developed with domestic technology. As the world’s first device constructed using superconducting materials, it has become a focal point in international collaborative fusion research and conducts annual plasma experiments to advance fusion technology.

This year’s experiment builds on KSTAR’s world record achievement last year of operating an ultra-high-temperature plasma at 100 million degrees Celsius for 48 seconds. The focus is on overcoming challenges that arise in a tungsten environment-a key material for future fusion reactors-and developing stable, high-performance operation scenarios.

To realize fusion energy, it is essential to stably maintain ultra-high-temperature plasma, hotter than the core of the sun, for extended periods.

In this process, KSTAR replaced its divertor with one made of tungsten in 2023, the same material that will be used for the inner walls of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) and future fusion reactors. While tungsten is highly resistant to high temperatures, it has a critical drawback: when it reacts with plasma, minute impurities are generated, which can significantly degrade plasma performance. Controlling these "tungsten impurities" is currently one of the most important challenges in international fusion research.

Whereas previous experiments focused on adapting to the tungsten environment and reproducing existing achievements, this year’s experiments will concentrate on developing "high-performance plasma operation scenarios" to directly tackle this issue.

In this experiment, researchers plan to apply various control methods-such as heating and fuel injection-under different conditions to analyze the behavior of impurities in detail and conduct in-depth studies on effective suppression strategies.

In particular, real-time control technology utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning will be implemented, with AI rapidly detecting subtle changes in plasma and verifying immediate response strategies.

The ultimate goal is to achieve plasma with high pressure, sustained current, and high stability-all requirements for future fusion reactors-by comprehensively verifying the interactions among key operational elements such as heating, current drive, and magnetic field control.

President Oh Youngkuk stated, "As global efforts toward fusion commercialization accelerate, KSTAR is also speeding up the development of technologies that will be directly applicable to future fusion reactors. By applying cutting-edge technologies such as AI, we will further strengthen our capabilities to realize fusion energy."

Following this experiment, KFE will begin the "2026 Plasma Experiment" immediately after a brief maintenance period of about one month, starting in February next year. According to KFE, this is a preparatory step for a large-scale operation to replace the entire inner wall of KSTAR with tungsten tiles, following the installation of the tungsten divertor. Once this work is completed, KSTAR will be able to conduct experiments under conditions even closer to those of future fusion reactors, further enhancing the precision and effectiveness of its research.

▲Fusion Energy: Technology that aims to artificially create the 'fusion' reaction-the principle by which the sun generates energy-on Earth and use it as an energy source.

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