Artificial Sun: The Dream When Our Sun Will Shine On Earth
The best part about realizing the artificial sun dream is that it will require hydrogen, which is available in abundance on Earth. No country will need to import it. The progress of China’s EAST project has shown that it is possible to keep plasma stable for a long time (more than 1000 seconds), which is an important step towards fusion energy. The success of this technology will prove to be a boon for mankind struggling with the energy crisis.
The crowd of lovers brings down the moon and stars for their beloveds in songs and ghazals. People wish for fame and glory like the sun. But the obsessed scientists of China are trying their best to create the sun and the moon on Earth itself. They have also achieved some success in reaching the destination of this great experiment.
Today we will talk about the blazing sun millions of kilometers away from the earth. China is replicating it in its lab. Recently China has had great success in this effort when China’s artificial sun kept blazing for about 17 minutes.
This is a stage in the scientific journey of mankind from where we see the dream of clean energy coming true. Clean energy means pollution-free energy. Where neither carbon will be produced nor greenhouse gases that destroy the earth’s atmosphere will be formed.
What Is an Artificial Sun?
Chinese scientists have named their “artificial sun” EAST (Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak).
The artificial sun is actually a nuclear reactor (nuclear fusion). The chemical reaction that produces energy in the sun. Scientists want to repeat the same process on Earth so that unlimited clean energy can be produced on Earth itself.
What Does the Real Sun Consist Of?
Now understand what happens in the sun that produces so much energy. This process takes place in the center (core) of the sun, where hydrogen protons combine to form helium nuclei due to extreme temperature and pressure. This process of joining protons is called nuclear fusion. A huge amount of energy is released in this process, which leaves the sun and reaches the earth in the form of light and heat.
What Are Chinese Scientists Trying To Do With the Artificial Sun?
Chinese scientists want to create a reaction in the nuclear fusion reactor at EAST (Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak) that would combine hydrogen isotopes (deuterium and tritium) at high temperatures and pressures to create helium gas. This process releases a huge amount of energy and is similar to what happens in the Sun.
In EAST, hydrogen isotopes, or forms of hydrogen such as deuterium and tritium, are converted into plasma, which is at much higher temperatures (millions of degrees Celsius) and densities than ordinary gases.
Fusion requires the plasma temperature to reach about 100 million degrees Celsius, which is many times higher than the temperature of the Sun’s surface. At this high temperature and pressure, the nuclei of hydrogen isotopes fuse to form helium. A huge amount of energy is released in this process.
Chinese scientists are trying to achieve this miracle. In January 2025, they completed this process for 1000 seconds i.e. 17 minutes. Now the next challenge is to extract this energy from the reactor and use it commercially. Which is quite challenging. China is targeting the next 10 to 15 years to achieve this feat. That is, China hopes that it will commercialize this system by 2035-40.
There Is No Shortage of Fuel and no Need for Import:
The best part about realizing the dream of an artificial sun is that it will require hydrogen, which is available in abundance on Earth. No country will need to import it. The progress of EAST has shown that it is possible to keep plasma stable for a long time (more than 1000 seconds), which is an important step towards fusion energy. The success of this technology will prove to be a boon for humanity struggling with the energy crisis.
If There Is Control Then Energy, if It Is out of Control Then Atom Bomb:
It is important to note that it is a very risky task to keep the reactor under control at such a high temperature so that nuclear fusion can take place in a controlled state. Let us tell you that controlled nuclear fusion produces a huge source of energy, but if this reaction becomes uncontrolled then it turns into a nuclear bomb explosion.
What is India Doing?
India cannot stay away from such an important energy project. The process of extracting energy from technology like artificial sun has been going on for years. Its biggest organization in the world is the ITER project. The name of this project is (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor). This project is located in Cadarache, France and its aim is to make commercial fusion energy possible by making nuclear fusion possible on Earth. It is being constructed in France and 35 countries are cooperating in it. This is a 45-billion-dollar project.
Apart from this, India is also trying to create an artificial sun at its own level. India started working in this direction in the 1980s itself. When India built the SINP Tokamak. Let us tell you that Tokamak is a kind of giant ship on which fusion experiments are conducted. India’s main focus is on building fusion reactors like tokamaks and stellarators, which make the fusion process possible by controlling plasma at high temperatures and pressures.
India has Aditya and Stellarator:
Aditya is India’s first tokamak. It was commissioned in 1989. It has recently been upgraded to Aditya U. Its purpose is to control the plasma for a longer time and with greater stability so that practical use of fusion energy can be made easier.
India’s important achievement towards the artificial sun is the Steady State Superconducting Tokamak-1 (SST-1). It is a state-of-the-art nuclear fusion laboratory device i.e. reactor developed by India. This reactor has been working since 2013. The construction of SST-1 started in 1994 and it was commissioned in 2013. It is located at the Institute of Plasma Research (IPR) in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. Some reports claim that the SST-1 has successfully produced plasma with a temperature of about 200 million degrees Celsius, about 20 times hotter than the Sun’s core.
Also Read This: About Some Most Powerful Nuclear Bombs in the World
India in the VIP Club:
With this, India has joined the 6 countries of the world that have this technology. Let us tell you that SST-1 is India’s strategic and tactical asset, so less information is available about it on the public platform. SST-1 has been designed in such a way that it can work in a stable state, that is, it can control the plasma for a long time. This is necessary for a commercial fusion plant. Like China, Indian scientists have also set a target of keeping the plasma stable for 1000 seconds.
Now India is working towards building SST-2. It will have an advanced plasma system. Institute for Plasma Research (IPR) and Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), IITs are conducting research towards building fusion reactors in India. India aims to develop its own indigenous fusion reactor in the future.
