A similar exciting frontier opens in clean energy: Nuclear fusion. While many countries competitively press towards this goal, China advances with outstanding improvements to quickly become part of the race to harness the power of the stars.
The Promise of Fusion
Nuclear fusion-the selfsame force driving our sun-offers, tantalizingly, the prospect of near-limitless clean energy. Unlike old-style nuclear fission, it yields hardly any radioactive waste and creates no risk of meltdown. Potentially, this might transform our energy supplies and make for a mighty tool in the fight against climate change.
China’s Fusion Landscape
The work of fusion in China centers around the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak, or EAST, at the Chinese Academy of Science’s Institute of Plasma Physics, ASIPP, in Hefei. This doughnut-shaped wonder is an “artificial sun” that uses high-powered magnetic fields to contain and heat plasma to temperatures far hotter than the core of the Sun.
EAST has already set world records for sustaining high-temperature plasma for extended durations. These represent important milestones on the path toward practical fusion energy and serve as a showcase for China’s rapidly developing prowess in a highly complex field of science.
Ambitious Plans and Rapid Progress
Yet its ambition in fusion stretches well beyond EAST: today, the country is developing an active device called the China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor, CFETR, for completion in the 2030s. The next-generation facility will produce up to 1 gigawatt of fusion power, beating the timeline for probably the world’s most well-known fusion power project, ITER, currently being built in France.
What makes China different, though, is not just the achievements on the technical level but also in the speed and focus of its effort. China has thrown big money into fusion research, estimated at $1.5 billion annual investments-almost double what the U.S. government spends every year. In such a vein, investment is well-matched with strategic intent for the continued development of technologies, materials, and workforce.
CRAFT: China’s Fusion Factory of the Future
befitting a nation known for its long-term outlooks, construction is underway on the vast Comprehensive Research Facility for Fusion Technology (CRAFT) next to EAST. This 40-hectare facility will become a centre for developing and manufacturing the components required by future fusion reactors and may accelerate China’s progress further.
The Rise of Private Fusion Ventures
While state-led efforts do dominate the fusion landscape in China, the private sector is equally setting ripples. Companies such as Energy Singularity attract millions of yuan in investment and are pushing the envelope on fusion technology. Their dreams include smaller and more cost-effective fusion reactors that may bring fusion power closer to reality.
Challenges and Questions
Spurred by the enthusiasm, there are considerable hurdles yet to be crossed. For one, fusion reactors have to produce more energy than they consume to become viable, a feat yet to be accomplished. There are also questions on the production of fuel, especially the breeding of tritium, one of the ingredients involved in fusion.
The Future
But the rapid advances which China has made in fusion research have been really quite unexpected, putting that country in the crosshairs of the world scientific community. Strong fusion programs continue to remain in the United States and other countries. However, with China’s focused approach-now joined by heavy investments-it is also well-positioned to become one of the leaders in this game-changing technology.
While the world grapples with an urgent need for clean, sustainable sources of energy, China’s fusion ambitions afford a vision of perhaps how that may be achieved. Whether such efforts will actually result in practical fusion power is as yet unclear, but one thing is certain: China is determined to be at the leading edge in this energy revolution.
True, the race for fusion energy is not exactly over, but China’s bold strides are precisely what is redrawing the competitive landscape. And as scientists all over the world push the boundaries of science and engineering, the dream of harnessing the power of the stars on Earth inches closer.
