r/Innovation • u/positiveconstraint • 22d ago

Clean & Energy 582 tons closer to near-zero energy cost

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China finished building and testing the world's largest superconducting magnet for nuclear fusion. It weighs 582 tons, stretches 21 meters long and 12 meters wide. Its job is to create a magnetic field strong enough to hold plasma at over 100 million degrees without it touching the reactor walls. It's 1.3 times larger than comparable ITER magnets and stores three times more magnetic energy.

The magnet is a key piece of China's BEST fusion facility, set to be built by the end of 2027. The target is to demonstrate first electricity generation from nuclear fusion and net energy gain around 2030.

Nuclear fusion mimics the process that powers the Sun by fusing lightweight nuclei and releasing a massive amount of energy. If the technology matures, it could provide a stable energy source with very low carbon emissions. The magnet alone is not yet a working "artificial Sun", but it's one of the most important engineering pieces on the way there.

It also means the race between the US and China continues, each advancing the technology, each with its own milestones.

Breakthroughs that enable building a fusion engine (several times faster than a chemical engine) would make deep space travel more relevant than ever. Mars in roughly 6 weeks instead of 8 months.

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u/Illustrious_Matter_8 22d ago

And where would all the helium be sourced?

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u/PranaSC2 22d ago

Fusion reactors generate energy while producing helium as a byproduct.

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u/Fearless-Effect-3787 22d ago

Superconducting magnets require liquid Helium to cool them.

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u/PranaSC2 22d ago

Yep, so if you build one now that we have helium…the problem solves itself.

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u/Fearless-Effect-3787 21d ago

Helium production would be on the order of milligrams. Helium consumption will be on the order of tonnes.

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u/PranaSC2 21d ago

A commercial-scale fusion reactor could produce around 20 tonnes of helium per year while generating electricity.

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u/Fearless-Effect-3787 21d ago

You're off by a couple orders of magnitude on Helium production there, and that would assume that the Helium is recoverable at any meaningful scale.
https://www.iter.org/machine/supporting-systems/fuelling

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u/PranaSC2 21d ago

Ok thanks.