Nuclear fusion: an answer to China’s energy problems?
Although Europe is leading on fusion energy with the JET experiment in the United Kingdom and ITER under construction in France, China believes it can “leap frog” the Europeans with ambitious plans to invest in fusion energy. An article in China Dialogue has a good look at the Chinese fusion energy sector. China needs energy supplies to maintain economic growth for decades to come, and it believes that fusion energy may be the only source of energy that can provide clean base load power with an abundant supply of fuel. From the article:
Today, the world has only one operational fusion experiment capable of producing fusion energy: the Joint European Torus, or JET, in England. That won’t be the case for long. A multinational effort to build a demonstration fusion reactor in the south of France, the ITER project – though currently a US$19 billion hole in the ground – is expected to start experiments in the mid 2020s. Its backers hope it will be the first fusion experiment to produce more power than it consumes.
In the longer term, the focus is likely to move eastward. China and South Korea, both partners in ITER, have plans to press ahead with their own demonstration projects immediately after completing the European scheme. Having footed the lion’s share of the bill for ITER – 45% of the cost as against China’s 9% – Europe could find itself left behind. But does it matter who succeeds first?
Cowley is not convinced it does. “Fusion is the perfect way to make energy, except for one thing – it’s very hard to do. So let’s just get it going and get it on the road,” he says. “If China solves the fusion problem and is the first country to produce fusion power stations and these solve the problem of China’s emissions, that’s a big step. That would help us all.”
To read the full article, click here.
