Thai scientists have begun producing hydrogen plasma with the help of a tokamak device known as an ” artificial sun ” donated by China last year.
The research team said that they believe that the device named Thailand Tokamak-1 (TT-1) furnace will reach full capacity this month, opening up the possibility of increasing the temperature inside the machine, South China Morning Post today. 11/5 reported. The Tokamak, a donut-shaped device built to harness fusion energy, generates a powerful magnetic field to restrain and manipulate hydrogen gas 10 times hotter than the core of the Sun. Thermonuclear fusion, similar to the process that has kept the Sun running for the past five years, is the ultimate solution to humanity’s future energy needs. Unlike current uranium-based nuclear power plants, thermonuclear reactors do not produce radioactive waste.
Tokamak equipment donated by China to Thailand. (Photo: SCMP)
The refurbished device was developed and awarded by the Institute of Plasma Physics (ASIPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Hefei, Anhui Province. As expected, TT-1 will help train scientists and engineers from Thailand and many other Asian countries. Last year, the Thai team along with Chinese colleagues began testing the equipment after installation. The first successful test took place on April 21, according to Nopporn Poolyarat, head of the nuclear heat and plasma department at the Thai Institute of Nuclear Technology.
Fusion energy comes from nuclear fusion, also known as fusion , which occurs at extremely high temperatures. In the reaction, two atomic nuclei, in this case the isotopes of hydrogen, deuterium and tritium, fuse together to form a heavier nucleus and release enormous energy. Nuclear fusion takes place in a state of matter called plasma, a super-hot ionized gas. The term “breakdown” refers to the transition from insulating gas to conductive plasma. The current generated in the first plasma experiment was at 2,000 amps, much smaller than the achievement achieved by the Chinese researchers.
Nopporn is part of a team of nine who spent three months in Hefei last year learning how to operate a tokamak. After the first time, he and his colleagues worked to improve little by little. They heated the plasma to the threshold of 60,000 – 70,000 amps, lasting 0.05 seconds. The key focus right now is to increase the plasma temperature to a maximum capacity of 100,000 amps in 0.1 second in mid-May.
After the last group of Chinese engineers leave Thailand at the end of this month, they will stay in touch to support operation and maintenance. The Thai researchers also work closely with the country’s largest electricity producer, the Electricity Generating Authority (EGAT), which is involved in training, installing and operating the machine. According to Nopporn, they have planned to upgrade the machine, including using artificial intelligence to ensure smooth operation.
Nopporn and colleagues will study how to increase the plasma temperature, using a physical phenomenon called “transportation barriers” . “The inside of the tokamak is really hot, the heat is lost to the outside. But if we can activate that barrier, the heat can be captured and we can keep the temperature in the oven at a very high level,” he said. high,” the researcher explained.