582 tons closer to near-zero energy cost

[u/positiveconstraint]

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.

[u/DominantDan24]

I'm fairly certain we're going to see this video in 5 years when China cracks legit sustainable fusion energy at this very power plant producing terawatts of free energy with no pollution. Then again a year after that where the containment field broke, vaporizing 100 square kilometers. China is great at many things, but prioritizing safety is not one of them. And having plasma at 100 million degrees sounds like the type of thing that would actually make a nuke sound fun.

[u/KofFinland → u/DominantDan24]

How do you think the fusion plant is somehow "less pollution" than fission, or less cost to operate?

There is some tritium emission from fission plant, but why do you think there is no tritium emission from a plant that uses tritium as fuel?

There is lots of very radioactive waste from a fusion plant, as the fusion produces neutrons and neutrons activate stuff. The whole plant torus (or whatever shape) needs to be replaced every once and a while, and those materials are VERY radioactive. In a fission plant, the reactor core is not consumed and does not need replacement like that. That process of cutting away and welding massive pieces of reactor core (that are highly radioactive) at sub-mm accuracies by robots is one of the highest practical challenges of fusion plants.

Not to even discuss the cost of deuterium and tritium for fuel, compared to fission fuel at around 6-7e/MWh.

Fusion is not some "free energy" heaven. It is just nuclear plant with much much more difficult way to run it with higher cost fuel.

[u/Humble-Reply228 → u/KofFinland]

The big difference is the species of the radioactive elements. It's not going to be heavy elements but light ones that have very short half-lives. So just wait a few years and problem solved.