HEFEI - The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), dubbed China's "artificial sun," maintained a steady-state high-confinement plasma operation for a remarkable 1,066 seconds on Monday, setting a new world record and marking a breakthrough in the quest for fusion power generation.

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The duration of 1,000 seconds is considered a key step in fusion research. The breakthrough, achieved by the Institute of Plasma Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, greatly improved the original world record of 403 seconds, which was also set by EAST in 2023.