Go Back
  • For Business
  • |
  • Warnings
  • Data Suite
  • Newsletters
  • Advertising
  • Superior Accuracy™
At least 3 killed amid historic flash flooding in New Mexico town. Click for the latest Chevron right
‘We will not leave’: 173 still missing in Texas flood zone as death toll hits 111. Read more Chevron right

Columbus, OH

70°F
Location Chevron down
Location News Videos
Use Current Location
Recent

Columbus

Ohio

70°
No results found.
Try searching for a city, zip code or point of interest.
settings
Columbus, OH Weather
Today WinterCast Local {stormName} Tracker Hourly Daily Radar MinuteCast Monthly Air Quality Health & Activities

Around the Globe

Hurricane Tracker

Severe Weather

Radar & Maps

News

News & Features

Astronomy

Business

Climate

Health

Recreation

Sports

Travel

For Business

Warnings

Data Suite

Newsletters

Advertising

Superior Accuracy™

Video

Winter Center

AccuWeather Early Hurricane Center Top Stories Trending Today Astronomy Heat Climate Health Recreation In Memoriam Case Studies Blogs & Webinars

News / Climate

‘Artificial sun’ sets record for time at 100 million degrees in latest advance for nuclear fusion

By Laura Paddison, CNN

Published Apr 2, 2024 12:59 PM EDT | Updated Apr 2, 2024 12:59 PM EDT

Copied

The Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research device (KSTAR), known as the "artificial sun," at the Korea Institute of Fusion Energy in Daejeon, South Korea on January 10, 2022. (Credit: Anthony Wallace/AFP/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

(CNN) — Scientists in South Korea have announced a new world record for the length of time they sustained temperatures of 100 million degrees Celsius — seven times hotter than the sun’s core — during a nuclear fusion experiment, in what they say is an important step forward for this futuristic energy technology.

Nuclear fusion seeks to replicate the reaction that makes the sun and other stars shine, by fusing together two atoms to unleash huge amounts of energy. Often referred to as the holy grail of climate solutions, fusion has the potential to provide limitless energy without planet-warming carbon pollution. But mastering the process on Earth is extremely challenging.

The most common way of achieving fusion energy involves a donut shaped reactor called a tokamak in which hydrogen variants are heated to extraordinarily high temperatures to create a plasma.

High temperature and high density plasmas, in which reactions can occur for long durations, are vital for the future of nuclear fusion reactors, said Si-Woo Yoon, director of the KSTAR Research Center at the Korean Institute of Fusion Energy (KFE), which achieved the new record.

Sustaining these high temperatures “has not been easy to demonstrate due to the unstable nature of the high temperature plasma,” he told CNN, which is why this recent record is so significant.

KSTAR, KFE’s fusion research device which it refers to as an “artificial sun,” managed to sustain plasma with temperatures of 100 million degrees for 48 seconds during tests between December 2023 and February 2024, beating the previous record of 30 seconds set in 2021.

The KFE scientists said they managed to extend the time by tweaking the process, including using tungsten instead of carbon in the “diverters,” which extract heat and impurities produced by the fusion reaction.

The ultimate aim is for KSTAR to be able to sustain plasma temperatures of 100 million degrees for 300 seconds by 2026, a “a critical point” to be able to scale up fusion operations, Si-Woo Yoon said.

What the scientists are doing in South Korea will feed into the development of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor in southern France, known as ITER, the world’s biggest tokamak which aims to prove the feasibility of fusion.

KSTAR’s work “will be of great help to secure the predicted performance in ITER operation in time and to advance the commercialization of fusion energy,” Si-Woo Yoon said.

This announcement adds to a number of other nuclear fusion breakthroughs.

In 2022, scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility in the United States, made history by successfully completing a nuclear fusion reaction which produced more energy than used to power the experiment.

This February, scientists near the English city of Oxford announced they had set a record for producing more energy than ever before in a fusion reaction. They produced 69 megajoules of fusion energy for five seconds, roughly enough to power 12,000 homes for the same amount of time.

But commercializing nuclear fusion still remains a long way off as scientists work to solve fiendish engineering and scientific difficulties.

Nuclear fusion “is not ready yet and therefore it can’t help us with the climate crisis now,” said Aneeqa Khan, research fellow in nuclear fusion at the University of Manchester in the UK.

However, she added, if progress continues, fusion “has the potential to be part of a green energy mix in the latter half of the century.”

Read more:

New-wave reactor technology could kick-start a nuclear renaissance and the US is banking on it
Electronic waste has grown to record levels and that’s a huge problem
New study reveals how much wind turbines affect home values

CNN’s Angela Dewan contributed to this report.

The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

Report a Typo

Weather News

video

House swept away by raging floodwaters in New Mexico

Jul. 8, 2025
Weather News

‘We will not leave’: 173 missing in Texas floods, death toll hits 111

Jul. 9, 2025
Weather News

US Coast Guard rescue swimmer hailed as a hero after saving 165 kids f...

Jul. 8, 2025
Weather News

The faces of the Texas flooding tragedy

Jul. 7, 2025
Severe Weather

Severe weather to rumble in the central US through the holiday weekend

Jul. 6, 2025
Weather News

Record sargassum seaweed piles up on Caribbean islands, Gulf

Jul. 2, 2025
Weather News

Alabama teen in ICU after lightning strike hits boat, causing burns an...

Jul. 2, 2025
Show more Show less Chevron down

Topics

AccuWeather Early

Hurricane Center

Top Stories

Trending Today

Astronomy

Heat

Climate

Health

Recreation

In Memoriam

Case Studies

Blogs & Webinars

Top Stories

Weather News

Deadly flash flooding devastates wildfire-scarred New Mexico town

8 minutes ago

Weather News

Camp Mystic, site of deadly Texas flooding, is in 'Flash Flood Alley'

13 hours ago

Weather News

‘Oh my God, we’re floating’: What people faced in amid Texas floods

1 day ago

Weather Forecasts

Flash flood threat to continue in central Texas into midweek

1 hour ago

Severe Weather

Flooding downpours, severe thunderstorms to mitigate heat in East

15 hours ago

More Stories

Featured Stories

Travel

FAA investigating part of a Delta Air Lines wing fell onto a driveway

5 days ago

Health

Three hospitalized, 21 injured after bee attack in France

1 day ago

Weather News

France leads Europe in saying au revoir to beach and park smoking

5 days ago

Weather News

125,000-year-old ‘fat factory’ run by Neanderthals discovered

1 day ago

Weather News

An ambitious vision of a city built from lava

1 day ago

AccuWeather Climate ‘Artificial sun’ sets record for time at 100 million degrees in latest advance for nuclear fusion
Company
Proven Superior Accuracy About AccuWeather Digital Advertising Careers Press Contact Us
Products & Services
For Business For Partners For Advertising AccuWeather APIs AccuWeather Connect RealFeel® and RealFeel Shade™ Personal Weather Stations
Apps & Downloads
iPhone App Android App See all Apps & Downloads
Subscription Services
AccuWeather Premium AccuWeather Professional
More
AccuWeather Ready Business Health Hurricane Leisure and Recreation Severe Weather Space and Astronomy Sports Travel Weather News Winter Center
Company
Proven Superior Accuracy About AccuWeather Digital Advertising Careers Press Contact Us
Products & Services
For Business For Partners For Advertising AccuWeather APIs AccuWeather Connect RealFeel® and RealFeel Shade™ Personal Weather Stations
Apps & Downloads
iPhone App Android App See all Apps & Downloads
Subscription Services
AccuWeather Premium AccuWeather Professional
More
AccuWeather Ready Business Health Hurricane Leisure and Recreation Severe Weather Space and Astronomy Sports Travel Weather News Winter Center
© 2025 AccuWeather, Inc. "AccuWeather" and sun design are registered trademarks of AccuWeather, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy | About Your Privacy Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information

...

...

...