The power of the SUN in the palm of Human

 

Most of you have heard this dialogue from  the famous movie Spiderman 2. Well, guess what we have completed it. The Kstar project(Korean star) has sustained the fusion reaction for 20 seconds.You guys might feel its really small duration but the effort to achieve this took decades of hardwork.

KSTAR Reactor
pic credits: indiantimes


Lot of countries have been into making of an artificial sun due to the increase in demand of the energy and the pollution of earth. Nuclear fusion paves the way to solve these problems. For over  a decade scientists have been working for making it a realization. Two years ago the same was achieved by china for 8 seconds. So, actually what happens in the artificial sun?

 

In our sun, the source of energy is fusion reaction combining lighter atoms to make a heavier atoms. In Sun hydrogen combine to form helium. For this reaction to take place, The isotopes of hydrogen(deuterium and tritium) is heated to extreme temperatures to change the state to 4th state of matter PLASMA. Deuterium is derived from water. So, at these high temperatures, the protons and electrons get loosened up. The protons combine together overcoming the force of repulsion and forms Helium by loosing some mass. This mass amount is very small but the energy released is huge and it can be calculated using the Einstein’s relation e=mc^2 . This is the chemistry behind Nuclear Fusion.



                                            pic credits: BBC 

Unlike fission fusion is not a chain reaction , the conditions should be maintained in order to achieve fusion. This consumes lot of energy but the energy produced is more than that so efficiency is attained. The temperature attained in this artificial sun is 10 times the temperature of sun. The scientists have conducted 110 experiments to attain this feat.  A small fusion reactor could power the whole nation. Scientists of United states of America have also helped in achieving this. By 2025, the scientists are trying to make this fusion last for 300 seconds. Despite the complexity in making it possible, scientists are working hard for it as all the other sources proved to be harmful or inefficient in one way or another. Technology is improving day by day and being updated on it is one of the most important thing in today's world to achieve more.  


Comments

  1. UnknownJanuary 9, 2021 at 8:20 PM

    May India become the first maker of an artificial sun.Very enthustiatic knowledge of the science behind the sun.

    ReplyDelete

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