China’s ‘Artificial Sun’ Breaks Nuclear Fusion Limit Thought to Be Impossible

Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have made a fusion energy breakthrough with its experimental “artificial Sun” nuclear reactor, achieving a plasma density previously thought impossible.

Nuclear fusion technologies, which seek to duplicate the processes in the Sun, are considered by some to be a holy grail of energy with theoretical potential to produce abundant energy without leaving behind hazardous waste.

Reports The Independent, “[Previous] experiments were limited by the theoretical ceiling on density…which causes the fuel — or plasma — to become unstable at a certain level.”

With the new process, CAS researchers kept the plasma stable at unprecedented density levels, which could enable far higher energy outputs.