The Guardian 28 June, 2006
China builds nuclear fusion device
The Chinese Minister for Science and Technology announced that China would build a nuclear fusion device by the end of the year. This will help scientists to develop a new source of energy.
The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak, or EAST will be the first of its kind in the world. It is a much smaller version of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), which is not expected to be operational for another decade.
"Over the next 10 years, while ITER is being built, we can conduct preliminary research on EAST to facilitate the operation and exploitation of ITER in the future", the Minister said.
ITER is the largest multinational co-operation project involving the European Union, the United States, Russia, Japan, India, South Korea and China to build a reactor to address the world’s energy crisis and global warming.
The reactor will emulate the fusion power of the sun, harnessing the tremendous amount of energy that is released when atoms fuse.
Inside the reactor, deuterium and tritium atoms will be forced together at a temperature of 100 million Centigrade, fuse and emit blasts of energy.
It will have fusion power of about 500 megawatts.
The Chinese scientists are involved in 12 of ITER’s programs and are training experts in this new field for the development of their own projects.
As an equal member with the other six parties, several managers and researchers will be deputed to ITER. China will have access to all intellectual property rights of generated technologies.
It is believed that fusion power may hold the key to solving projected energy shortages. One kilogram of fusion fuel is capable of creating as much power as 10 million kilograms of fossil fuel.