France runs fusion reactor for record 22 minutes
France runs fusion reactor for record 22 minutes
France has upped the ante in the quest for fusion power by maintaining a plasma reaction for over 22 minutes – a new record. The milestone was reached on February 12 at the Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA) WEST Tokamak reactor.
France has upped the ante in the quest for fusion power by maintaining a plasma reaction for over 22 minutes – a new record. The milestone was reached on February 12 at the Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA) WEST Tokamak reactor.
In the latest test, the WEST Tokamak held its reaction for 1,337 seconds.
They could have gone a few seconds longer but decided to stop it there.
Them 1337
gamersscientists.
It amuses me that the two longest-running tokamaks are now EAST in China and WEST in Europe
It’d be way funnier if the China one was named WEST and the European one was EAST
Holy fuck that's pretty fucking good.
According to CEA, the next step will be to create even longer reactions that could amount to a combined time of several hours, with the temperature growing increasingly hotter.
This is actually pretty huge right? I know for the longest time there was always the joke of '5 more years and we will have fusion' but this is measurable progress right?
Yeah the fusion train has been picking up speed. Might be 2.5 years until Fusion now.
Not me being baffled by "The tricky bit isn't to get atoms to fuse. That's a fairly simple lab bench experiment." before remembering that we did that in high school.
When will they be able to start ITER though?
Even assuming no delays, that's about ten years off.
All I want to know is when I can finally buy a Mr. Fusion for my car.
France baise ouais!
The tricky bit isn't to get atoms to fuse. That's a fairly simple lab bench experiment. The problem is creating the right conditions where the fusion reaction is self-sustaining, with a net energy output. That means reaching temperatures of between 100 – 150 million °C (180 – 270 million °F), a pressure of five to 10 atmospheres at the point of reaction, and keeping a high-energy plasma stable for at least 10 seconds.
Nowhere in the article is said that they actually achieved these temperatures. This is poor journalism at its worst
The CEA seems to have done considerably better than 10 seconds and gone 25% beyond what China achieved in January 2025 with 1,066 seconds. In the latest test, the WEST Tokamak held its reaction for 1,337 seconds.
It's the very next paragraph... not to mention the very FIRST paragraph...
France has upped the ante in the quest for fusion power by maintaining a plasma reaction for over 22 minutes
What more do you want?
edit: The article talks about a sustained plasma reaction, not a fusion reaction. I agree that this could have been made clearer. Even in quoting it, I missed that
There is an influx of "this isn't the final result, therefore it's irrelevant" shit going on here and I don't like it. Across subjects. People would seemingly prefer radio silence over any information at all...it's astounding to me.
"Don't report on it until you have a commercially viable fusion reactor, this is just filler" filler these nuts nerd, I want to read about fusion reaction advancements.