Korea’s Fusion Reactor sets a new Record

Korea’s Fusion Reactor sets a new record by running for 20 seconds with an ion temperature over 100 million degrees Celsius.

The Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) Fusion Reactor, a superconducting fusion device also known as the Korean artificial sun, set a world record by maintaining its plasma at a super-hot 100 million degrees Celsius for 20 seconds.

Nuclear physicist Si-Woo Yoon, a director at the KSTAR Research Centre at the Korea Institute of Fusion Energy (KFE), explains:

“The technologies required for long operations of 100 million-degree plasma are the key to the realisation of fusion energy. The KSTAR’s success in maintaining the high-temperature plasma for 20 seconds will be an important turning point in the race for securing the technologies for the long high-performance plasma operation, a critical component of a commercial nuclear fusion reactor in the future.”

Nuclear physicist Yong-Su Na, from Seoul National University (SNU), said:

“The success of the KSTAR experiment in the long, high-temperature operation by overcoming some drawbacks of the ITB modes brings us a step closer to the development of technologies for realisation of nuclear fusion energy.”