The Earth's magnetic field is only 50 microtesla (0.00005 T), which is about 60,000 times weaker than an MRI machine. Although not as powerful, this magnetic field is responsible for protecting the Earth from solar wind and cosmic rays that can cause the Earth's atmosphere to be stripped away.
The strength of an MRI magnet may be 60,000 times stronger than Earth's, but physicists from the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Hefei, China have created an electromagnet with a strength of 35.1 Tesla, or 702,000 times the strength of Earth's magnetic field. This makes it the strongest magnetic field ever created, surpassing their own previous record of 32.35 Tesla.
The electromagnet with this strong magnetic field was developed to realize the dream of developing a clean nuclear fusion power station. CAS is involved in the development of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), the world's largest nuclear fusion reactor equipped with a tokamak. A plasma hotter than the surface of the sun is needed for nuclear fusion and a magnetic field is needed to control it.
One gram of deuterium and tritium fuel fired in a reactor can release the same amount of power as burning 11 tons of coal. Nuclear fusion is humanity's hope for a safer, non-polluting, and virtually limitless source of energy.