Following the first successful test of the Wendelstein X-7 Stellarator-extremely sophisticated nuclear reactor in Germany-the Chinese have accomplished a wildly impressive in one of their reactors. According to the South China Morning Post, China's Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) was able to sustain 90 million Fahrenheit plasma (50 million Kelvin) for 102 seconds. For context, the center of the sun is thought to be only about a third as hot.
Unlike the mind-bendingly complex supercomputer-optimized shape of the X-7 Stellerator, China's EAST is torus-shaped, like a donut, and uses magnetic field to keep its plasma fields in check. At a glance, the most jaw-dropping part of its most recent test is seems to be the temperature-hotter than the sun. But in actuality, other fusion experiments have reached up into the billions of degrees and ion colliders like the LHC have been known to reach into the trillions.
The really important part is how long the reactor was able to maintain that plasma. Keeping plasma around and under control for a long enough time is one of the chief barriers to practical nuclear fusion. The Wendelstein X-7 Stellerator's first successful test was only a fraction of a second, though the team behind it hopes to be able to extend that out to a whopping 30 minutes, citing the Stellerator's much calmer operation. It was much, much harder to build than China's Soviet-designed EAST, but should eventually prove easier to operate.
In the meantime, however, EAST's feat is a true triumph that places it on the leading edge of the nuclear fusion race. Other reactors of its design have a hard time maintaining plasma of this temperature for 20 seconds before a reactor meltdown starts to be a concern, much less a minute and 42.
Researchers from EAST tell the South China Morning Post that their experimental data may prove useful in the development of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) which is currently being built in France. That project has the lofty goal of generating 500 megawatts through fusion power for 400 seconds. That sort of success might still be way off in the distance, but we are certainly taking steps towards it.