CHINA is set to start constructing an “artificial sun” that will burn a whopping seven times hotter than the real one.
The nuclear fusion reactor is being built as a matter of national priority and has been labelled “an ideal solution to the global energy challenge”.
China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) is in charge of getting the resources together and creating the useful tool being dubbed an “artificial sun” by the state owned company.
It has big aims of building the first industrial prototype fusion reactor by 2035 before having the clever technology available in large-scale commercial use by 2050.
In September, Lu Tiezhong, chairman of CNNC Nuclear Power, said the first power generated by controlled nuclear fusion “must come from our country, and we are working towards this goal”.
The plan is to unite 25 of China’s fusion energy research and development programs and get everyone working on the same page towards a similar goal.
The programs have previously been scattered around research institutes and private firms after not finding the success the Chinese government wanted.
CNNC vice-president Cao Shudong said in a statement on the company’s website: “Controlled nuclear fusion as an ideal solution to the global energy challenge has become the forefront of scientific and technological competition among major countries.”
Cao went on to say China needed to develop a “high-quality energy industry,” and will now do so in an attempt to focus all national resources on one key project.
Chen Rui, founder of high-tech company Startorus Fusion said nuclear fusion had become a national priority.
His company has been focused on the commercial application of fusion energy for some time now and have been busy researching and developing related technologies.
Chen said: “The State Council made it clear in a recent meeting that ‘controlled nuclear fusion is the only direction for future energy’, and the field is now developing very rapidly in Europe and the United States.
“In this context, China’s central government is starting to pay more attention to the industry.”
Some of the members involved in the ambitious project are China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation Limited, the State Grid Corporation of China, four universities and a private company.
According to information posted online by CNNC, 13 members have been given the tricky task of addressing issues such as high-temperature superconducting magnets, fusion reactor materials and high-performance energy storage.
As with such a huge project, an innovation fund was set up to help get the much needed funding to quicken up the process.
Nuclear fusion is often referred to as an “artificial sun” because it has very similar properties to the Sun in our universe.
The Chinese device is set to generate energy by heating hydrogen atoms to over 100million degrees Celsius before fusing them into heavier atoms.
If this can become a reality, nuclear fusion could be a safe, clean and almost limitless source of energy.
The process is so important to achieve as it doesn’t contribute to global warming or have any troubling long term radioactive waste issues with it.
China is one of the world’s leading players in nuclear fusion after filing more patents in big technology than any other country or region between 2011 and 2022.
