The world record for the longest-running man-made sun has now passed to France. The Tokamak WEST reactor of the French Atomic Energy and Alternative Energy Commission (CEA) managed to keep this man-made sun running for 1337 seconds (22.28 minutes) on February 12. It beat the record of 1066 seconds (17.7 minutes) set by China's Tokamak EAST last month.
A torus-shaped machine that uses magnetic force to maintain plasma at temperatures reaching 120 million °C. Temperatures hotter than the surface of the sun (15 million °C) are required to carry out the nuclear fusion process. The isotopes of deuterium and tritium combined through nuclear fusion will only produce helium and neutrons. No radioactive waste will be produced like the nuclear fission process in current nuclear reactors
One gram of deuterium and tritium fuel can release the same power as burning 11 tons of coal. The world's fusion is humanity's hope for a safer, cleaner and almost limitless source of energy.
The information gathered from this success will be used to make the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project a success, which will be the world's largest tokamak. It is expected to be completed by 2035 in France. The ITER project is an international effort consisting of the European Union, the UK, Switzerland, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States.