International experts praise China's new thermonuclear fusion reactor

World leading nuclear scientists spoke highly of China's experimental thermonuclear fusion reactor, which has been undergoing tests since Sept. 28.

Twenty-nine scientists from Europe, the United States, Russia, Japan, Republic of Korea and India have been invited to visit the Institute of Plasma Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Hefei, capital city of east China's Anhui Province, where the reactor is located.

The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) fusion reactor is the only reactor of its kind in operation in the world, and the device has met design standards, said a report delivered after the scientists visited the reactor.

Unlike traditional nuclear fission reactors, which split atoms to create energy and produce dangerous radioactive waste, the EAST uses nuclear fusion to compress atoms at extremely high temperatures to generate energy that produces very little pollution.

To date fusion reactors require more energy to start up than they can produce and a viable one has yet to be made.

The report said it was a great achievement in fusion technology since EAST was designed, built and put into operation in a very short time.

The Institute of Plasma Physics spent eight years and 200 million yuan (25 million U.S. dollars) on building its experimental reactor.

The EAST is part of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) program, which is initiated by the United States, France and Russia in the 1980s, with a purpose of establishing the world's largest experimental thermonuclear fusion reactor.

Source: Xinhua