中国托卡马克装置创过热等离子体新纪录：将超亿℃维持长达1056秒

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 Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

据物理学家组织网（Phys.org）2022年1月5日报道，在中国托卡马克设施（Chinese tokamak facility）工作的研究人员宣布，该团队能够将1.2亿℃（中科院等离子体物理研究所报道1.6亿℃，Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences）的等离子体保持1056秒。在向媒体发表的声明中，他们指出他们的成就是保持过热等离子体的新记录。详见Chinese tokamak facility achieves 120-million-degree C for 1,056 seconds by Bob Yirka，Jan 05, 2022.

这项工作致力于开发聚变作为一种能源，可以替代燃煤发电厂，也可能替代其他可再生资源发电厂。基本思想是模仿太阳，它通过聚变产生光和热。当加热到高温时，振动的原子变得非常兴奋，以至于它们的原子核融合在一起。在太阳中，所涉及的原子是氢。当它们融合在一起时，就会形成氦-4（⁴He），一种比两个氢原子还轻的元素。质量差以热能形式释放，它以光和热的形式从太阳中释放出来。多年来，科学家们一直致力于在托卡马克等设施（tokamak facility）中复制这一过程。在这样的设施中，少量原子被微波加热到非常高的温度，产生等离子体，并通过用磁铁将它们固定在适当的位置，并用可以承受的材料衬里周围的材料来防止燃烧包含它们的甜甜圈形设施非常高的温度，例如碳。

在托卡马克(tokamak)中，氚(tritium, ³H)和氘(deuterium, ²H)原子被加热到非常高的温度——直到它们开始融合的温度——大约1.5亿℃。但这样做只是过程中的一个步骤。对于持续产生能量的设施，聚变反应必须是自我维持的，就像太阳一样。因此，像托卡马克设施的团队一直在努力制作越来越长的反应场景。

在他们的公告中，该团队指出，他们的结果表明他们正在朝着目标稳步前进。2021年年初，他们将等离子体样本在1.2亿℃的温度下保持了 101 秒。他们还表示，他们的反应堆旨在尽可能地复制太阳中的聚变过程。他们将他们的设施称为“人造太阳（artificial sun）”。

上述介绍，仅供参考。欲了解更多信息，敬请注意浏览原文或者相关报道。

Chinese tokamak facility achieves 120-million-degree ℃ for 1,056 seconds

by Bob Yirka，Phys.org，Jan 05, 2022.

Researchers working at China's tokamak facility have announced that the team was able to hold 120-million-degree Celsius plasma for 1,056 seconds. In their announcement to the press, they noted that their achievement was a new record for holding superheated plasma.

The work is dedicated to the development of fusion as a power source that could replace coal-fired power plants and likely other renewable resource plants as well. The basic idea is to mimic the sun, which produces light and heat through fusion. Vibrating atoms become so excited when heated to high temperatures that their nuclei fuse together. In the sun, the atoms involved are hydrogen. When they fuse together, they form helium-4, an element that is lighter than the original four protons. The difference in mass is emitted as thermal energy, which is released from the sun as light and heat. Scientists have been working for many years to replicate the process in facilities like tokamak. In such facilities, small numbers of atoms are heated to very high temperatures using microwaves, creating plasma, and are kept from burning the donut-shaped facility containing them by holding them in place with magnets and lining the perimeter around them with materials that can sustain very high temperatures, such as carbon.

In the tokamak, tritium and deuterium atoms are heated to very high temperatures—up to the point where they start fusing—approximately 150 million degrees Celsius. But doing so is just one step of the process. For a facility to produce energy on a continuous basis, fusion reactions must be self-sustaining, as is the case with the sun. So teams like those at tokamak facilities have been working to produce increasingly long reaction scenarios. 

In their announcement, the team noted that their results show they are steadily moving toward their goals. Early last year, they held a sample of plasma at 120 million degrees Celsius for 101 seconds. They also state that their reactor has been designed to copy the fusion process in the sun as closely as possible; they refer to their facility as an "artificial sun."

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More information:

1,056 Seconds, another world record for EAST

count： [2021-12-31]

1,056 seconds, a new pulse length world record for high temperature tokamak plasma has been achieved on the "artificial sun" in Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ASIPP). On December 30, the experimental advanced superconducting tokamak (EAST) set this milestone of tokamak operation for longer than 1,000 seconds by the end of 2021.　　

Over the past 15 years of operation, EAST has achieved plasma operation with 1 megampere, 160 million degrees and 1,056 seconds separately. These milestones laying a solid scientific and experimental foundation toward the pursuing of the fusion energy.

“ASIPP has a perfect team. We will face up to difficulties no matter how hard it is!”said the Prof. Yuntao SONG, Director-General of ASIPP. (Reported by Yuanli XING)