China’s “Artificial Sun” Shatters Fusion Record With Over 17 Minutes of Plasma

Any announcements like this coming from China should be taken with a huge grain of salt the size of... China.

What we need to do is find some way to make a giant fusion reactor and put it in the sky and get energy from it that way.

But that's just a pipe dream...

Not a word about how much energy went into the process and how much was harvested…

I can create plasma using a candle and a microwave.

Impressive. :)

I'm tempted, but won't try to guess how operation endurances will progress - it would be an poorly informed guess by a rando. Better to wait what they write about it in journals.

this sounds like a weapon from Red Alert

Great. Now put a magnifying glass in front of it and point it at the white house

So what are the limitations of running the reactor for longer? Is it containing the plasma becoming infeasible due to heat or other constraints or does the reaction inside the plasma fizzle out?

Wasn't this the exact plan of Doc Ock from Spiderman 2?

PURASUMA!

This news looks outdated to me (saw it several months ago).
Last week some researchers set the bar at 22 minutes: https://lemmy.ml/post/26231805