China Cranks Up Heat on Nuclear Fusion

Is China’s latest technological drive going to end up producing yet another Sputnik moment for the U.S.?

According to a report in the state-run China Daily, the central government is planning to train 2,000 experts to pursue research and development into magnetic confinement fusion, which seeks to use magnetic fields to create the high-pressure conditions necessary for fusion.

China is already a signatory and participant in the France-based International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project, that is perhaps the largest project pursuing magnetic approach. Arguably one of the most world’s ambitious multinational scientific undertakings, the project has a price tag of at least $21 billion and involves hundreds of scientists from China, the European Union, Japan, India Korea, Russia and the United States.

At the moment, China contributes 10% of the funding for this project (ITER) and only 5% of the scientists, this means that the country is missing out on valuable training for it's would-be fusion experts.

In addition to its international efforts, China is also taking part in its own research into nuclear fusion

Not to be outdone, the U.S. has spent billions of dollars on fusion research, in addition to the work it is doing to promote ITER projects domestically and on the main project in France, although funding for the European project has been a political football in the past. Like China, the US is responsible for around 9% of the ITER project’s total costs, with the EU has taking on the bulk of financing.

Despite what a lot of people think, institutions the world over are racing to find some way to commercialise technology that seems too good to be true: cheap, almost unlimited power with no harmful emissions

China Cranks Up Heat on Nuclear Fusion