France just achieved a nuclear fusion breakthrough, making limitless energy virtually inevitable.
In a major achievement, France’s WEST Tokamak reactor has maintained a plasma reaction for over 22 minutes, setting a new world record in the quest for sustainable fusion energy.
énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA), the experiment surpassed China’s previous record of 1,066 seconds, reaching 1,337 seconds of sustained plasma. + This milestone is a major step toward commercial fusion power, which promises unlimited, clean energy by harnessing the same process that powers the Sun. The challenge lies in achieving a self-sustaining reaction while maintaining extreme temperatures of up to 150 million°C (270 million°F) without damaging reactor components.
While WEST itself won’t become a commercial reactor, the data gathered will be instrumental in developing ITER, the world’s largest fusion project, currently under construction in southern France.
CEA scientists plan to extend reaction times further, increasing power levels and plasma stability. If successful, these advancements could bring humanity closer to realizing the long-held dream of clean, virtually limitless energy, potentially transforming global power generation in the future.
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On 12 February, the CEA’s WEST machine was able to maintain a plasma for more than 22 minutes. In doing so, it smashed the previous record for plasma duration achieved with a tokamak. This leap forward demonstrates how our knowledge of plasmas and technological control of them over longer periods is becoming more mature, and offers hope that fusion plasmas can be stabilised for greater amounts of time in machines such as ITER.