A Chinese nuclear fusion reactor has run at five times hotter than our sun for more than 17 minutes.

The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), or ‘artificial sun’, has set a record for sustained high temperatures, beating a previous record set in May last year.

It reached a heat level of 70 million C during the experiment, and there are hopes that the technology could deliver near-limitless clean energy by mimicking the natural reactions occurring within stars.

The EAST project began in December and the experiment will run until June 2022 at a cost of £700 billion to China.

Commenting on the news, experiment lead Gong Xianzu, a researcher at the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said: “The recent operation lays a solid scientific and experimental foundation towards the running of a fusion reactor.”

Based in the Hefei province, EAST broke previous records in May when it ran for 101 seconds at a temperature of 120 million degrees centigrade.

The device is used to test nuclear fusion technologies that have the potential to provide limitless, green energy in the future.

It replicates the physics of the sun, generating massive amounts of energy that can be turned into electricity. The device uses magnetic fields to confine fusion fuel in the form of a plasma.

China’s reactor team said it will provide technical support to another nuclear fusion reactor megaproject currently being constructed in Marseille, France.

Once completed, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) will be the world’s largest.

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In Britain, the UK Government announced plans for the building of its own nuclear fusion power station as part of its “green industrial revolution”.

The Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) project aims to produce a concept design by 2024. The team said they hope the tech could deliver power to people’s homes by 2040.

A site in Ardeer in North Ayrshire, as well as four others in England, has been shortlisted for a potential location for the STEP project, with a decision expected to be made at the end of 2022.

The Scottish Government came under fire from anti-nuclear campaigners in October last year for failing to oppose the decision.

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