China’s “Artificial Sun”

China successfully powered up its “artificial sun” nuclear fusion reactor for the first time, marking a great advance in the country’s nuclear power research capabilities.

The HL-2M Tokamak reactor is China’s largest and most advanced nuclear fusion experimental research device.
It is aimed at making clean energy through controlled nuclear fusion
It uses a powerful magnetic field to fuse hot plasma and can reach temperatures of over 150 million degrees Celsius, approximately ten times hotter than the core of the sun.
The reactor is often called an “artificial sun” on account of the enormous heat and power it produces.
The ability to generate such ultra-high temperature is essential for the research of fusion process, replicating the way the sun produces energy using hydrogen and deuterium gases as fuels. The sun only operates at a temperature of 15 million degrees Celsius.

Fission occurs when a neutron slams into a larger atom, forcing it to excite and split into two smaller atoms—also known as fission products. Additional neutrons are also released that can initiate a chain reaction.
When each atom splits, a tremendous amount of energy is released.
Uranium and plutonium are most commonly used for fission reactions in nuclear power reactors because they are easy to initiate and control.
The energy released by fission in these reactors heats water into steam. The steam is used to spin a turbine to produce carbon-free electricity.

Fusion occurs when two atoms slam together to form a heavier atom, like when two hydrogen atoms fuse to form one helium atom.
This is the same process that powers the sun and creates huge amounts of energy—several times greater than fission. It also doesn’t produce highly radioactive fission products. Unlike fission, there are no indirect greenhouse gases because of fusion (the processes for mining and refining uranium ore and making reactor fuel all require large amounts of energy) and carries less risk of accidents or the theft of atomic material.
Fusion reactions are being studied by scientists, but are difficult to sustain for long periods of time because of the tremendous amount of pressure and temperature needed to join the nuclei together.

Today Current Affairs Upsc Exam Syllabus & Previous Yearpaper.