zhōng guó中国de的“rén zào tài yáng人造太阳”lí离fā diàn发电hái yǒu还有duō yuǎn多远？
China is developing nuclear fusion devices known as “artificial suns.”
Nuclear fusion combines lighter atomic nuclei and releases a large amount of energy.
The Sun relies on its powerful gravity to complete this process. Equipment on Earth does not have those conditions, so it can only heat the fuel to extremely high temperatures, turning it into electrically charged plasma, and then use strong magnetic fields to keep it suspended in the air so that it does not touch the inner walls of the machine.
China has already produced large superconducting magnets and has also kept high-temperature plasma stable for relatively long periods.
These are important advances, but they do not mean that a power plant has already been built, nor do they mean that unlimited energy is available.
Next, researchers need to make the heat produced by the reaction help sustain the reaction, and try to convert that heat into electricity.
However, fuel supply, machine materials, energy consumption, and radioactive waste are still difficult problems.
In the future, nuclear fusion may provide abundant, low-carbon energy, but commercial power generation will still take time and cannot replace current efforts to reduce the use of coal, oil, and natural gas.