Scientists from France have surpassed by 25% the latest achievement of their Chinese colleagues in the field of plasma confinement in a tokamak-type thermonuclear reactor. The WEST facility of the CEA institute operated for 22 minutes, while the Chinese EAST tokamak "burned" for 17 minutes and 46 seconds. European researchers have demonstrated the possibility of achieving a stable thermonuclear reaction, although their experiment was of an academic nature.
The WEST facility was put into operation in 1988 as the Tore Supra reactor. From 2010 to 2013, it underwent significant modernization, and then received a new name - WEST, where the letter W is the chemical designation of tungsten, from which the inner coating of the reactor's working chamber is made.
Since the reactor was modernized relatively recently, it has not yet reached its maximum potential. However, even at this stage, the experiments conducted on it to contain high-temperature plasma are impressive.
In the last experiment, the WEST reactor contained plasma for 22 minutes, breaking a world record previously held by Chinese scientists. However, the information ends there - the French researchers do not disclose any additional details of the experiment.
It is worth noting that Chinese scientists also do not disclose all the information that would allow an objective assessment of their achievements in the field of thermonuclear plasma containment. To maintain a thermonuclear reaction under terrestrial conditions, the temperature of the ion plasma in the reactor's working chamber must be no lower than 100 million °C.
So far, Chinese researchers have only managed to heat electron plasma to such a temperature, which is no less difficult task. The French scientists who set the new record also did not provide data on the temperature in the working chamber. Therefore, we can only wait for the relevant publications in scientific journals.
Despite the reserve, the practical value of the experiment is obvious: it is aimed at developing modes and materials that could find application in the international thermonuclear project ITER. Therefore, any contribution to this common cause is of great value.