I was sent a video by Ms. Sonia Soon about China's artificial sun. She requested me to explain to her.
https://youtube.com/shorts/i6Hij7okcSI?si=PtIu6JvK4R-BHbJQ
She asked: Dr J.B. Lim, I would like to understand a bit more of this technology mentioned in the video ..your comments please
Before I go into the technical details, let me give a simple introduction as an explanation and also as an answer what is an "artificial sun" for her.
China’s "artificial sun" is a massive experimental machine designed to create clean energy by copying how the real sun works. Its official name is the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), and it is located in Hefei, China.
Scientists built it to harness nuclear fusion, which is the same powerful process that powers the sun and stars.
Artificial sun is a giant, ring-shaped machine (called a tokamak). Inside this machine, scientists trap a special type of gas and heat it to temperatures hotter than the center of the real sun. It is a machine that uses intense electrical currents and microwaves to heat a gas (like hydrogen) until it turns into a glowing, super-hot soup called plasma. The plasma is enclosed in magnetic cages because the plasma is so hot it would melt any normal metal it touches, scientists use incredibly strong magnets to suspend it in the air, creating an invisible cage.
Its purpose is to create energy by mimicking the Sun. When the atoms inside this super-hot, floating plasma smash together at extreme speeds, they fuse together. This fusion releases an enormous amount of energy, which could one day be used to generate endless, zero-emission electricity.
While a true "artificial sun" sounds like science fiction, this machine is purely a research tool. The ultimate goal is to figure out how to keep this reaction running stably for long periods to power entire cities without causing pollution.
The Details:
Now I would like to explain in greater detail what I know about this technology - creating an artificial sun to solve our energy problem on Earth using the best of my knowledge in physics.
First, we need to answer how could it be possible to generate energy without putting in equivalent amounts of energy into a system? This would violate the laws of thermodynamics that nothing can be created or destroyed - unless it is a nuclear fission that destroys matter into energy such as spitting the atoms of enriched uranium into nuclear energy, or like the Sun that derives its energy through the fusion of hydrogen into helium. That probably requires immense gravitational pressure only possible in the sun - not on Earth.
China Artificial Sun:
Let's now get back to China creating an "artificial sun" by building massive, experimental nuclear fusion reactors called tokamaks to replicate the physical processes that power the sun and stars. These devices use immense magnetic fields to suspend and heat a super-hot cloud of hydrogen plasma to over 100 million degrees Celsius, several times hotter than the sun's actual core in order to force atomic nuclei to merge and release vast amounts of clean energy. China's pursuit of fusion energy relies on several cutting-edge facilities and engineering marvels:
The EAST Reactor is located in Hefei, the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) is a doughnut-shaped reactor chamber that set a world record by maintaining a super-hot, steady-state plasma for over 1,000 seconds.
The HL-3 Tokamak is China's largest and most advanced facility, situated in Sichuan Province, tests critical components like the "first wall". This layer directly confronts extreme temperatures and particle bombardment using a proprietary blend of tungsten, copper, and stainless steel. China also unveiled plans for the Burning Plasma Experimental Superconducting Tokamak (BEST) to push fusion research from simply heating plasma to achieving a self-sustained burning plasma, a crucial milestone on the path to commercial power generation.
Because physical materials would instantly melt or vaporize upon contact with the plasma, these devices rely on an array of superconducting magnets, roughly 200,000 times stronger than Earth's magnetic field, to create a magnetic "bottle" that suspends the scorching plasma in the vacuum of the reactor.
Let me now proceed to answer that Chinese claim using simple non-technical language. I shall write it using two separate versions - so that whichever version readers read, it would be easier for them to follow.
The Dream of an Artificial Sun: Can Humanity Create Limitless Energy on Earth? (First Version)
For thousands of years humanity has looked upward at the Sun and wondered whether one day we could reproduce its power for ourselves.
The Sun rises every morning and pours unimaginable quantities of energy onto Earth without smoke, without fuel trucks, and seemingly without end. Every civilization has depended upon this celestial furnace. Today, with rising energy demands and concerns over fossil fuels, scientists are attempting one of the boldest engineering challenges in history: to build an artificial sun on Earth.
But can such a dream truly become reality?
What Is China’s “Artificial Sun”?
Recently the world was fascinated by reports of China’s “artificial sun”—a series of experimental fusion reactors called tokamaks.
The name “artificial sun” is poetic rather than literal.
China has not created a miniature star. Instead, scientists have constructed machines designed to imitate one specific process that powers stars: nuclear fusion.
Among these projects is the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), located in Hefei. EAST recently maintained extremely hot plasma for more than one thousand seconds, setting an important experimental milestone. This achievement demonstrated that scientists are improving their ability to control fusion conditions for longer periods.
Fusion research facilities such as EAST, HL-series reactors, and future projects are stepping stones toward a future fusion power station.
Yet none of these reactors currently generate usable commercial electricity.
They are laboratories attempting to answer a difficult question:
Can we obtain more energy from fusion than we spend creating and controlling it?
Why the Sun Can Generate Energy Without Running Out
At first glance the Sun appears to violate common sense.
How can energy emerge continuously without putting equivalent energy into the system?
The answer lies in one of Einstein’s most profound discoveries.
Matter itself contains stored energy.
According to Einstein’s famous relation:
E = mc²
a tiny amount of mass can transform into an enormous amount of energy because the speed of light squared is extraordinarily large.
Inside the Sun, hydrogen nuclei collide and fuse into helium.
The helium formed weighs slightly less than the original hydrogen.
That “missing mass” becomes radiant energy.
Every second, the Sun converts roughly hundreds of millions of tonnes of matter into energy.
But there is no violation of conservation of energy.
The energy was already hidden inside matter.
The Sun is not creating energy from nothing—it is converting mass into energy.
Why Fusion Is Difficult on Earth
This immediately raises an obvious question:
If fusion powers the Sun so efficiently, why not simply reproduce it?
Because Earth lacks one thing the Sun possesses in abundance:
gravity.
The Sun contains about 99.8% of all the mass in our solar system.
Its immense gravity squeezes hydrogen inward with crushing pressure. At the solar core, temperatures reach around 15 million degrees Celsius and pressures become so enormous that positively charged nuclei overcome electrical repulsion and fuse.
Earth cannot reproduce such gravitational compression.
To compensate, engineers must use another strategy.
Instead of gigantic pressure, they use extreme temperature.
Plasma inside fusion experiments may exceed 100 million degrees Celsius—much hotter than the Sun’s core.
At these temperatures atoms are stripped into a glowing soup of nuclei and electrons called plasma.
The nuclei move so violently that some collide and fuse.
Holding a Star Without Touching It
Here comes perhaps the most astonishing part.
No ordinary material can touch such temperatures.
Steel melts.
Tungsten vaporises.
Nothing survives direct contact.
Scientists therefore suspend the plasma using magnetic fields.
This is why tokamaks are shaped like giant doughnuts.
Superconducting magnets create a magnetic bottle that keeps the plasma floating in vacuum without touching reactor walls.
One may imagine trying to imprison lightning inside invisible walls.
This magnetic confinement is among the most difficult control problems humanity has attempted.
Even tiny instabilities can collapse the plasma.
Does Fusion Break the Law of Conservation of Energy?
No.
This is perhaps the most misunderstood aspect.
Fusion is not a perpetual motion machine.
Energy must first be invested:
· Heating fuel to extreme temperatures.
· Generating magnetic fields.
· Operating cryogenic systems.
· Running diagnostics and control systems.
Initially, energy input exceeds output.
The aim is to reach a condition called ignition, where fusion reactions themselves provide enough heat to sustain further fusion.
This resembles lighting a campfire.
We expend energy to ignite it, but afterward the wood supplies continuing heat.
Fusion seeks the same principle.
The challenge is making the plasma self-supporting.
Commercial success requires obtaining significantly more useful electricity out than total electricity consumed.
Could Fusion Solve Humanity’s Energy Problem?
If successful, fusion could become one of civilizations greatest technological revolutions.
Potential advantages include:
· Fuel sources derived partly from hydrogen isotopes obtainable from water.
· No carbon emissions during operation.
· Far less long-lived radioactive waste than conventional nuclear fission.
· Very high energy density.
· Continuous power generation independent of weather.
Yet several obstacles remain:
· Plasma instability.
· Materials degradation.
· Heat extraction.
· Tritium fuel handling.
· Economic viability.
Fusion has progressed dramatically but remains under development.
A Humbling Reflection
There is something philosophically beautiful about fusion research.
For millions of years humanity simply lived beneath the Sun.
Now, using mathematics, physics, superconductors, vacuum engineering, and extraordinary perseverance, humans are attempting to reproduce a process born in stars.
Whether fusion becomes practical in ten years, fifty years, or longer, the attempt itself reflects something remarkable about our species:
We do not merely receive energy from the universe.
We strive to understand how the universe works.
And perhaps one day, in controlled form, we may bring a fragment of the stars down to Earth—not to replace the Sun, but to illuminate our future.
The Artificial Sun on Earth: Humanity’s Search for Limitless Energy Without Violating Nature’s Laws (Second Version)
Since the dawn of civilization, humanity has depended entirely upon the Sun. Every grain of rice, every forest, every breath of oxygen, every river cycle, and nearly every form of energy that sustains life ultimately traces its origin to sunlight. For billions of years the Sun has illuminated Earth continuously, releasing an amount of energy so enormous that if humanity could capture only a tiny fraction of it efficiently, our global energy needs would be solved many times over.
Naturally, scientists eventually began asking a bold question:
If the Sun can produce such immense energy, could humanity one day build an artificial sun on Earth?
This dream no longer belongs entirely to science fiction. Around the world—and especially in China—scientists are constructing experimental nuclear fusion reactors designed to reproduce the same physical process that powers stars.
China’s so-called “artificial sun” has captured worldwide attention. The name itself is dramatic, but it does not mean that China has literally created a miniature star. Rather, scientists have built highly advanced machines called tokamaks whose purpose is to imitate one aspect of stellar physics: nuclear fusion.
Among these is the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), located in Hefei, which achieved international attention by maintaining an extremely hot plasma state for more than one thousand seconds. China’s newer facilities, including the HL-series reactors and proposed future projects, seek to move beyond simply sustaining hot plasma toward achieving what scientists call a burning plasma—a condition in which fusion reactions begin sustaining themselves.
These achievements are scientifically remarkable, but they also raise an important question that many people naturally ask:
How can energy come out of such a system if enormous amounts of energy must first be put into it?
The answer leads us to one of the most fundamental principles in all of science.
Nature does not allow energy to appear from nothing.
This principle is expressed through the First Law of Thermodynamics—the law of conservation of energy. It states that energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only change from one form into another.
This means there are no free lunches in physics.
No machine can continuously produce more energy than exists within the system. If such a machine existed, it would overturn virtually all modern science.
Fusion therefore is not a machine that creates energy out of nothing.
Instead, fusion unlocks energy already stored inside matter itself.
This insight came from one of the most profound discoveries in physics: Einstein’s understanding that mass and energy are interchangeable.
Matter is not merely “stuff”; matter itself is condensed energy.
Inside the Sun, hydrogen nuclei are squeezed together under unimaginable gravitational pressure until they merge into helium. When this happens, the resulting helium nucleus weighs slightly less than the original hydrogen nuclei.
That tiny missing amount of mass does not disappear.
It is converted into energy.
Because the speed of light squared is such an enormous number, even a tiny loss of mass releases extraordinary amounts of energy.
Thus the Sun is not violating conservation laws.
The Sun is converting matter into radiant energy.
Every second, enormous quantities of matter become sunlight, heat, and electromagnetic radiation.
But reproducing this process on Earth presents a nearly impossible challenge.
The Sun possesses something Earth does not: overwhelming gravity.
The Sun contains nearly all the mass of our solar system. Its gravity crushes hydrogen inward continuously, creating conditions where fusion occurs naturally at temperatures of around fifteen million degrees Celsius.
Earth cannot replicate such gravitational compression.
Scientists therefore use another strategy.
If pressure cannot be made high enough, temperature must be increased.
Fusion reactors heat hydrogen isotopes into plasma exceeding one hundred million degrees Celsius, several times hotter than the Sun’s core.
At these temperatures, atoms no longer exist in their normal form. Electrons are stripped away and matter becomes a glowing plasma composed of charged particles moving at tremendous speed.
If these particles collide with enough energy, fusion occurs.
Yet this creates another astonishing problem.
Nothing solid can touch such temperatures.
No steel, no ceramic, no metal can survive direct contact.
Even advanced materials would melt, crack, or vaporize.
To solve this, scientists create an invisible container using magnetic fields.
Superconducting magnets generate what is essentially a magnetic bottle that suspends the plasma in vacuum so that it never touches the walls.
Humanity is attempting to hold a piece of a star without letting it burn the container.
This is one of the greatest engineering challenges ever attempted.
Even if fusion reactions occur, the total energy produced must exceed all the energy consumed to heat plasma, maintain superconducting magnets, cool systems, operate pumps, and extract electricity.
Only then can fusion become practical.
The goal is not to break thermodynamics but to obey it intelligently.
Scientists call this achieving energy gain or ignition—when the fusion process supplies enough energy to sustain itself and still leave useful energy for society.
This is similar to lighting a fire.
One must spend energy striking the match, but once burning, the fire releases far more stored chemical energy than was needed to ignite it.
Fusion aims to do the same on a far greater scale.
If successful, controlled fusion may transform civilization. It could provide abundant energy with minimal carbon emissions, enormous fuel density, and fuel sources ultimately derived from materials that are widely available.
But fusion remains one of humanity’s most difficult scientific pursuits.
It is not magic.
It is not perpetual motion.
It is not energy from nothing.
It is humanity learning to access one of nature’s deepest reservoirs of stored energy while remaining fully obedient to the laws that govern the universe.
And perhaps there is something deeply humbling in that thought.
For thousands of years humanity stood beneath the Sun and wondered.
Today, through mathematics, physics, engineering, and persistence, we are learning not to replace the Sun—but to understand how stars themselves shine.
— Rewritten and expanded from Version One into Version Two)
I hope I have answered.
See also my other two articles about energy scientists try to create:
1. An Endless Energy from A Diamond Battery?
https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/search?q=endless+energy
In the above link article I published on Wednesday, January, 2025 I have already mentioned about China and other countries that have indeed made impressive strides in creating an artificial sun. For example, China’s EAST Tokamak (Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak) In 2021, China maintained a plasma temperature of 120 million °C for over 100 seconds, setting a record.
See also this article:
https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/2023/09/an-unending-source-of-energy-from-ocean.html
Thank you Ms. Sonia Soon for asking, and to others for reading.
- Jb lim
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