South Korea's"artificial sun" has set a new fusion record after superheating a plasma loop to 180 million degrees Fahrenheit for 48 seconds, scientists have announced.
But replicating the conditions found inside the hearts of stars is no simple task. The most common design for fusion reactors — the tokamak — works by superheating plasma and trapping it inside a donut-shaped reactor chamber with powerful magnetic fields. By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.Cooking plasma to these temperatures is the relatively easy part, but finding a way to corral it so that it doesn't burn through the reactor without also ruining the fusion process is technically tricky. This is usually done either with lasers or magnetic fields.