Researchers in France have set an impressive new record. For 22 breathtaking minutes, blazing-hot plasma swirled inside the WEST tokamak, setting a new world record for plasma duration. A tokamak is one of the most promising designs for a fusion reactor: a doughnut-shaped device that uses powerful magnetic fields to confine and control superheated

France’s WEST Tokamak set a fusion record, sustaining plasma for 22 minutes, a 25% improvement, advancing long-term fusion stability.

Nice number, but also not much more than a nice advance France’s Commissariat à L'énergie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives on Tuesday claimed it’s topped China’s recently-established for record maintaining fusion plasma in a tokamak,

WEST, a tokamak run from the CEA Cadarache site in southern France and one of the EUROfusion consortium medium size Tokamak facilities, was able to maintain a plasma for on 12 February. This was a 25% improvement on the previous record time achieved with EAST,