【By Observer Net, Wang Yi】On November 24, the research plan for China's compact fusion energy experimental device (BEST) was officially released to the international fusion community for the first time. The South China Morning Post noticed on the 26th that in the context of escalating geopolitical competition, some top European nuclear physicists have chosen to bet on China, as similar projects in the West are delayed and have not made progress.

The report stated that the U.S. nuclear fusion goals are under scrutiny, while the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) located in France has been long delayed. Now, a new leader has emerged in this field - China seems to be preparing to fill the gap in leadership in this area, and the BEST device planned to be completed in 2027 is rapidly attracting international talent who are frustrated by the slow progress of other projects.

On the day of the global release of the BEST research plan, scientists from more than 10 countries including France, the UK, Germany, and Italy jointly signed the "Hefei Fusion Declaration" in Hefei, China. The Hong Kong media commented that this indicates that interest in China has taken a formal form for the first time.

The declaration advocates the spirit of open sharing and win-win cooperation, encouraging researchers from various countries to conduct fusion cooperation research in China. According to information from the Science and Technology Department of Anhui Province, the attending fusion scientists said that after decades of cooperation and development in the international fusion science community, a series of major breakthroughs have been achieved in fusion research, but there are still many major challenges. It is necessary to gather the wisdom and strength of global scientists to carry out more practical, closely-knit, and open international exchanges and cooperation.

On the same day, the Chinese Academy of Sciences' "Combustion Plasma" International Scientific Program Project was also launched in the Future Science City of Hefei, aiming to accelerate the overall R&D progress of BEST and promote the realization of sustainable nuclear fusion, which is considered the "Holy Grail" of clean energy.

Professor Song Yuntao, vice president of the Hefei Institute of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and director of the Institute of Plasma Physics, said: "The release of this plan today means that more international scientists and Chinese fusion scientists will work together to solve the core scientific and engineering problems of human future energy."

The base of the compact fusion energy experimental device (BEST), Xinhua News Agency

Nuclear fusion releases energy by simulating the fusion reaction of the sun and is considered the "ultimate energy" for humanity. In recent years, China's nuclear fusion research has accelerated and has broken several world records multiple times.

BEST device is regarded as China's new generation of "artificial sun." It started the assembly of the device in May this year, and is planned to be completed by the end of 2027, followed by experiments on deuterium-tritium plasma, verifying its ability for long-pulse steady-state operation, striving to achieve a fusion power of 20 to 200 megawatts, achieving output energy greater than consumption energy, and striving to demonstrate fusion power generation by 2030.

"This is an exploration in 'no man's land,' facing many engineering and physical challenges," said Song Yuntao. For example, alpha particles are crucial for maintaining the ultra-high temperature conditions required for fusion reactions, but their transport rules need further study.

However, Song Yuntao said, "We are about to enter a new stage of burning plasma," which is a key part of fusion engineering research. This means that nuclear fusion is like a "flame" maintained by the heat generated by the reaction itself, forming the basis for future continuous power generation.

Foreign Minister Mao Ning of China promoted the BEST device on overseas social platforms in October and announced that the device "may become the first device in human history to generate electricity through fusion."

This made many foreign media think of the SPARC prototype fusion machine being built by the American Federal Fusion Systems Company (CFS) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In May, CNN reported that Federal Fusion Systems Company was assembling the SPARC, a machine resembling a donut, which is used to produce energy comparable to the sun and without radioactive waste. If everything goes well, it may become the key to almost infinite clean power production in the United States within about ten years.

But the U.S. media said, "The most urgent thing is that Federal Fusion Systems Company and other Western companies are racing against Chinese scientists," satellite images show that China is rapidly building a large-scale fusion facility.

The South China Morning Post also mentioned that the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), the largest and most powerful fusion experiment project in the world, lags behind BEST.

ITER is one of the largest and most influential international scientific research cooperation projects after the International Space Station, implemented by seven parties: China, the EU, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia, and the United States, with participation from over 30 countries. However, the plan was proposed in 1985, signed in 2006, construction began in 2007, site construction started in 2010, and major engineering started installation in 2020.

According to the plan set in 2016, ITER was originally scheduled to produce the first plasma in 2025 and start deuterium-tritium fusion experiments in 2035. However, due to supply chain delays caused by the pandemic, plus the need to repair some key machine parts, the deuterium-tritium fusion experiment phase is now expected to begin in 2039.

Petero Barabaschi, the Director General of the ITER Organization, introduced at a press conference in July that the additional costs resulting from this would be about 500 million euros (approximately 4.1 billion yuan). Barabaschi revealed to Chinese media during his attendance at the 30th Fusion Energy Conference in Chengdu in October that the part of the ITER plan undertaken by China "has either been delivered smoothly or is being advanced smoothly."

The South China Morning Post also pointed out that the pace of China's "artificial sun" is in sharp contrast with that of ITER. As Yan Jianwen, Chairman of the company responsible for the main body of the BEST device, Fusion New Energy (Anhui) Co., Ltd., said, "In less than two years, we completed the civil engineering, and multiple system components have entered operational status - this is what we call 'China speed'."

This article is an exclusive article of Observer Net. Without permission, it cannot be reprinted.

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7576971448326095379/

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