‘China speed’ accelerates drive towards next step in nuclear fusion
Work on a key experimental reactor is expected to be finished within two years, which could be a major advance in the race for clean energy
China is accelerating its efforts to build the world’s first nuclear fusion reactor capable of achieving net energy generation – a move that would be a historic step towards commercialising a clean, safe and near-limitless source of energy.
The Burning Plasma Experimental Superconducting Tokamak (Best), is now in its final assembly phase in Hefei and is expected to be completed in 2027, state news agency Xinhua reported.
However, SPARC, an experimental fusion facility under construction in Massachusetts, is working towards the same goal – that of producing more energy from fusion than it consumes – and is working to a similar timeline.
The assembly of Best involves tens of thousands of components with a total weight of around 6,000 tonnes.
“We have fully mastered the core technologies, both scientifically and technically,” said Song Yuntao, the project’s chief engineer from the Institute of Plasma Physics in Hefei, at a ceremony marking the start of the final stage of construction on Thursday.
Work began two months ahead of schedule, according to Xinhua. “In less than two years, we completed the civil construction, with components from various systems already reaching operational readiness – this is what we call ‘China speed’,” said Yan Jianwen, chairman of Neo Fusion, the state-backed company leading the project.
Best is a tokamak, a doughnut-shaped device widely seen as the most promising design for making nuclear fusion – a process that recreates the process by which the sun generates energy – a viable source of electricity.
Nuclear fusion power plants would also have the significant benefit of producing far less radioactive waste than contemporary power plants.
It builds on the legacy of the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (East) China’s first-generation superconducting tokamak, which has shown that controlled fusion is scientifically feasible, but does not produce actual fusion energy.
By contrast, Best is designed to allow scientists to move from experiments to real energy-producing fusion reactions – a threshold known as net energy generation.
It will serve as an intermediate step in China’s fusion road map between East and the Chinese Fusion Engineering Demo Reactor (CFEDR), which will be the country’s next large-scale demonstration reactor for future fusion power plants.
The reactor is slightly larger than the US SPARC facility, which is being built by MIT spin-off Commonwealth Fusion Systems, but is using less powerful magnets than its American counterpart.
Best aims to briefly produce more than five times the energy it uses in short pulses and to break even during longer, steady operations.
SPARC is designed to at least double the energy it consumes – or most optimistically – up to 10 times more. This makes it one of the most ambitious compact fusion efforts to date. Construction on the facility began in late 2021 and is also targeting net energy gain by 2027.
Assembling the Best facility will need core components to be precisely installed in the main tokamak pit.
“Both installation precision and cumulative error must be controlled within the millimetre range, which presents a significant technical challenge,” Liang Zhuo, project manager for the core assembly, told local television. “The full assembly is scheduled for completion and delivery by November 2027.”
Once construction is complete, Neo Fusion plans to proceed with CFEDR, paving the way for the eventual commercialisation of fusion energy, according to Yan.