KSTAR
KSTAR is a tokamak fusion device run by Korea Institute of Fusion Energy in South Korea. It is operating. Like every fusion device built so far, it has produced no net electricity.
Sustained an ion temperature of 100 million °C for a record 48 seconds, early 2024.
Korea's superconducting tokamak, focused on high-temperature plasma duration. 100 million °C is roughly seven times the core of the Sun, fusion on Earth needs higher temperatures than a star because it cannot use a star's gravitational pressure.
| Organisation | Korea Institute of Fusion Energy |
|---|---|
| Approach | tokamak |
| Confinement | magnetic |
| Country | South Korea |
| Status | Operating |
| First plasma | 2008 |
| Target date | none stated |
|---|---|
| Power target | none stated |
| Energy gain target | none stated |
| Net electricity | No. no fusion device has produced any |
Other tokamak projects
Fusion needs tritium, and the world's civilian stock comes mostly from CANDU fission reactors. See the fusion overview.
KSTAR in context
14 of the 24 fusion projects on record use the tokamak approach: 7 operating, 3 under construction, 3 planned and 1 closed.
Its first plasma is dated 2008, 18 years ago: the 5th earliest of 15 projects on record with a first-plasma date.
| Measure | KSTAR | Median of all projects | Standing |
|---|---|---|---|
| First plasma | 2008 | 2015 | 5 of 15 (earliest first) |
Worked out from the entries on this site only, so a figure compares KSTAR with what is recorded here, not with everything that exists. An entry with no value for a measure is left out of that measure's ranking and median.
Sources
- World Nuclear Association, Nuclear Fusion Power · retrieved 2026-09-07
How these sources are used, including the corrections applied on top of them and what is deliberately left blank · download the underlying data