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From: ltlee1@hotmail.com (ltlee1)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china
Subject: The US led on nuclear fusion for decades. Now China is in position to win
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Date: Sun, 20 Oct 2024 12:07:43 +0000
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"Mastering fusion is an enticing prospect that promises wealth and
global influence to whichever country tames it first.

The prize of this energy is its sheer efficiency. A controlled fusion
reaction releases around four million times more energy than burning
coal, oil or gas, and four times more than fission, the kind of nuclear
energy used today.
...
 The Chinese government is pouring money into the venture, putting an
estimated $1 billion to $1.5 billion annually into fusion, according to
Jean Paul Allain, who leads the US Energy Department’s Office of Fusion
Energy Sciences. In comparison, the Biden administration has spent
around $800 million a year.

“To me, what’s more important than the number, it’s actually how fast
they’re doing this,” Allain told CNN.

 Private businesses in both countries are optimistic, saying they can
get fusion power on the grid by the mid-2030s, despite the enormous
technical challenges that remain.

The US was among the world’s first to move on the futuristic gambit,
working on fusion research in earnest since the early 1950s. China’s
foray into fusion came later that decade. More recently, its pace has
ratcheted up: Since 2015, China’s fusion patents have surged, and it now
has more than any other country, according to industry data published by
Nikkei.

 Energy Singularity, the start-up in Shanghai, is just one example of
China’s warp speed.

It built its own tokamak in the three years since it was established,
faster than any comparable reactor has ever been built. A tokamak is a
highly complex cylindrical or donut-shaped machine that heats hydrogen
to extreme temperatures, forming a soup-like plasma in which the nuclear
fusion reaction occurs.

For a fledgling company working on one of the world’s most difficult
physics puzzles, Energy Singularity is incredibly optimistic. It has
reason to be: It has received more than $112 million in private
investment and it has also achieved a world first — its current tokamak
is the only one to have used advanced magnets in a plasma experiment.
...
 The company is planning to build a second-generation tokamak to prove
its methods are commercially viable by 2027, and it expects a third-gen
device that can feed power to the grid before 2035, the company said.

In contrast, the tokamaks in the US are aging, said Andrew Holland, CEO
of the Washington, DC-based Fusion Industry Association. As a result,
the US relies on its allies’ machines in Japan, Europe and the UK to
further its research.
...
There’s a growing unease in the US industry that China is beating
America at its own game. Some of the next-generation tokamaks China has
built, or plans to, are essentially “copies” of US designs and use
components that resemble those made in America, Holland said.
... There is “a long history” of China copying American tech, he added.›

“They’re fast followers and then take the lead by dominating the supply
chain,” Holland said, using solar panel technology as an example. “We’re
aware of this and want to make sure that’s not the way it goes forward.”
...
 But if the Chinese government continues to invest more than $1 billion
a year, that could soon eclipse US spending, even in the private sector.

And if those investments pay off, colorful celebrations in Shanghai will
not only be powered by fusion, they will cast China in a whole new
light. "