China to upgrade its 'artificial sun' in Anhui

The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak, nicknamed China's artificial sun, is undergoing an upgrade at Hefei's Science Island in Anhui Province. 

EAST is a magnetic confinement fusion device independently designed and developed by the Institute of Plasma Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. 

It is the world's first fully superconducting Tokamak with a noncircular cross section.

EAST is used to achieve nuclear fusion and the energy it releases is used to generate electricity.

The upgrade is expected to be finished in May.