France has upped the ante in the quest for fusion power by maintaining a plasma reaction for over 22 minutes – a new record. The milestone was reached on February 12 at the Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA) WEST Tokamak reactor.

France has upped the ante in the quest for fusion power by maintaining a plasma reaction for over 22 minutes – a new record. The milestone was reached on February 12 at the Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA) WEST Tokamak reactor.

  • Kraiden@kbin.earth
    8·
    3 days ago

    The temperature, and pressure are the conditions for a self sustaining fusion reaction. The fact that they maintained a fusion reaction for ANY length of time would imply that, yes, they reached those temperatures and pressures…

    Your argument is essentially that the article is talking about how long they ran a steam engine, but that it doesn’t say that achieved water boiling temperatures.

    edit: @[email protected] has done a better job of explaining your issue. I missed that the article talks about a sustained plasma reaction, not a fusion reaction, which is subtle enough that I think I can be forgiven for missing your point. Especially since, at the end of the day, I’m just a layman.

    Having a look at the source article here shows that you’re correct, it was only 50 million celcius.

    I’ve actually changed my mind, and I agree with you that that is misleading and the article author could have done a better job at making clear that, while this is still an impressive milestone, no fusion reaction took place.