China Has Created a Record-Breaking Magnet for an Artificial Thermonuclear Sun — Global Times
China has completed testing of the world's largest superconducting toroidal magnet, which will be one of the key components of an experimental fusion reactor. The 582-metric-ton structure is designed to help contain superheated plasma with a temperature exceeding 100 million °C within a magnetic field, preventing it from coming into contact with the reactor walls. The project is part of China’s “Artificial Sun” program.
Assembled at the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Hefei, the magnet is 21 meters long, 12 meters wide, and 3.3 meters tall. It generates a magnetic field of 6.5 tesla and stores three times more energy than a similar magnet in the international ITER project in France. All components were manufactured in China using domestic capabilities, and the cost of the key high-temperature superconducting tape was reduced by 75%.
This is just one of 16 similar magnets that will eventually form a complete ring around the next-generation reactor.
The project manager noted that the successful testing of the magnet represents about 80% of the total work: the complete assembly of the reactor and long-term stability tests still lie ahead. No fusion reactor in the world has yet produced stable, clean electricity. China plans to achieve its first plasma in its compact BEST reactor in 2027, with the goal of achieving fusion-based electricity generation by approximately 2030. This is an intermediate step, not a power plant capable of supplying an entire city.
The same week that China completed its magnet tests, the international ITER project in France assembled another magnet for a reactor that will not begin operating on actual fusion fuel until at least 2039. Thus, China is testing a larger magnet for reactors it aims to launch before the end of this decade—and is doing so using a supply chain entirely of its own making. This is a bid for leadership in fusion energy in terms of both timeline and cost.
This was reported by the Global Times.
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