Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
     France has taken a major leap forward in the race for nuclear fusion energy. It just achieved a new world record for plasma duration. On February 12th, 2025, scientists at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) successfully sustained a plasma reaction for one thousand three hundred and thirty-seven seconds (over twenty-two minutes) inside the WEST tokamak reactor.
     This breakthrough surpasses the previous record of one thousand and sixty-six seconds (eighteen minutes), set by China’s EAST tokamak in January 2025, marking a 25% improvement. It demonstrates the growing ability to control fusion reactions for extended periods, a critical step toward making fusion energy a practical power source.
     Located at the CEA Cadarache site in southern France, WEST (W Environment in Steady-state Tokamak) is an advanced research facility designed to explore the conditions necessary for sustainable fusion power.
     During this experiment, the plasma inside WEST reached temperatures of ninety million degrees Fahrenheit, which is hot enough to sustain nuclear fusion. The team also confirmed that the reactor’s plasma-facing components remained stable. This proved that materials can withstand prolonged exposure to extreme heat and radiation.
     Anne-Isabelle Etienvre is the Director of Fundamental Research at the CEA. She claimed that this milestone is a major technological step forward. She added, “WEST has achieved a new key technological milestone by maintaining hydrogen plasma for more than twenty minutes through the injection of two megawatts of heating power. WEST experiments will continue with increased power. This excellent result allows both WEST and the French community to lead the way for the future use of ITER.”
     Nuclear fusion is frequently described as the “holy grail” of clean energy. Unlike nuclear fission, which powers today’s reactors by splitting atoms, fusion generates energy by fusing hydrogen isotopes, producing helium and enormous amounts of heat.
     The potential benefits of commercial nuclear fusion are immense. Fusion power offers virtually limitless energy, as its most common fuel is derived from hydrogen, which is abundant and widely available. Unlike fossil fuels, fusion does not produce greenhouse gas emissions. This makes it an environmentally friendly solution for large-scale energy production. Unlike traditional nuclear fission, fusion creates minimal radioactive waste, as it does not generate long-lived radioactive byproducts.
     The main challenge in generating fusion power on Earth has always been maintaining the plasma long enough for energy generation to be commercially viable. Plasma, the superheated gas where fusion reactions occur, must be confined within a powerful magnetic field inside a tokamak reactor. If the plasma becomes unstable, the reaction terminates.
     The recent achievement at WEST brings scientists closer to solving this challenge, offering new hope that nuclear fusion can become a practical energy source in the near future.
     WEST is part of an expanding international effort to develop nuclear fusion, alongside major projects like ITER, EAST, JT-60SA, and KSTAR. ITER, located in France, is the world’s biggest fusion experiment and is expected to begin operations in the 2030s. EAST, China’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak, previously held the record for plasma duration as detailed above, but WEST’s latest breakthrough has now surpassed it.
     In Japan, JT-60SA is testing new fusion reactor designs that could eventually be used in commercial fusion power plants. South Korea’s KSTAR project is also making advances in sustaining high-temperature plasmas for extended periods.
     These projects are working together to develop the technologies needed for commercial fusion reactors. WEST’s latest findings are providing valuable data for ITER’s future operations. By proving that long-duration plasma reactions are achievable, WEST is helping to develop the engineering and materials that will be required for full-scale fusion power plants in the future.
     While WEST itself will never become a commercial fusion power plant, its success lays the foundation for future reactors that could power entire cities with fusion energy. The next phase of research will focus on extending plasma durations even further. The goal is to eventually achieve multi-hour sustained reactions.
     Increasing the heating power to achieve even higher temperatures, closer to two hundred million degrees Fahrenheit, will also be a priority. In addition, scientists will continue developing and testing new materials to ensure reactor components can withstand prolonged fusion conditions without degrading.
     Despite these advances, commercial fusion power is still years away from large-scale deployment. Scientists must overcome critical challenges, including achieving net energy gain, meaning the fusion reactor must produce more energy than it consumes. Currently, no fusion reactor has successfully reached this milestone. However, WEST’s latest experiment brings that goal one step closer.

W Environment in Steady-state Tokamak

Part 1 of 2 Parts
     China’s “artificial sun” reactor has broken its own world record for maintaining super-hot plasma. This marks another milestone in the long road towards near-limitless clean energy.
     The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) nuclear fusion reactor maintained a steady, highly confined loop of plasma for one thousand sixty-six seconds (eighteen minutes) on January 20th, 2025. This more than doubled its previous best of four hundred seconds. (seven minutes).
     Nuclear fusion reactors are nicknamed “artificial suns” because they generate energy in a way that is similar to the Sun by fusing two light atoms into a single heavy atom via heat and pressure. The Sun has a lot more pressure than Earth’s fusion reactors, so scientists compensate by using temperatures that are many times hotter than the Sun
     Nuclear fusion offers the potential of a huge power source without greenhouse gas emissions or much nuclear waste. However, scientists have been working on this technology for more than seventy years, and it is probably not progressing fast enough to be a practical solution to the climate crisis. Researchers expect us to have commercial fusion power plants within decades, but it could take much longer.
     EAST’s new record won’t immediately usher in what is dubbed the “Holy Grail” of clean power. However, it is a step towards a possible future where commercial fusion power plants generate electricity.
     EAST is a magnetic confinement reactor, or tokamak, which is designed to keep the plasma continuously burning for prolonged periods. Fusion reactors like this have never achieved ignition, which is the point at which nuclear fusion creates its own energy and sustains its own reaction. However, the new record is a step towards maintaining prolonged, confined plasma loops that future commercial fusion reactors will need to generate electricity.
     Song Yunta is the Director of the Institute of Plasma Physics responsible for the fusion project at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He said, “A fusion device must achieve stable operation at high efficiency for thousands of seconds to enable the self-sustaining circulation of plasma, which is critical for the continuous power generation of future fusion plants.”
     EAST is one of a growing number of nuclear fusion reactors worldwide, but they all currently use far more energy than they produce. In 2022, the U.S. National Ignition Facility’s fusion reactor briefly achieved ignition in its core using a different experimental method to EAST. It relied on quick bursts of energy, but the reactor as a whole still used more energy than it consumed.
     Tokamaks like EAST are the most common research nuclear fusion reactors. EAST heats up plasma and traps it inside a donut-shaped reactor chamber with powerful magnetic fields. For the latest Chinese EAST record, researchers made several upgrades to the reactor, including doubling the power of its heating system.
     The data gathered by EAST will support the development of other fusion reactors, both in China and internationally. China is part of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) program. This project involves dozens of countries, including the U.S., U.K. Japan, South Korea and Russia.
     The ITER reactor, which is being built in southern France, contains the world’s most powerful magnet and will be operational in 2039 at the earliest. ITER is an experimental tool designed to create sustained fusion for research purposes, but it could pave the way for commercial fusion power plants. Song said, “We hope to expand international collaboration via EAST and bring fusion energy into practical use for humanity.”

Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak

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