Another Nuclear Fusion Milestone For China
China has made another vital step towards achieving commercially viable nuclear fusion.
Chinese state media is reporting the CRAFT artificial sun project has surpassed international benchmarks in the final testing of two locally developed superconducting magnets.
They are the world’s biggest superconducting magnets for a nuclear fusion project and represent a major step forward in the pursuit of clean, limitless energy.
The magnets, which have been developed and produced domestically, are core components in fusion reactors and are used to contain the plasma heated to more than 100 million degrees.
The assembly comprises two coils: a toroidal-field magnet that acts as a magnetic cage, and a central solenoid that serves as the igniter.
Weighing around 582 tonnes, they are the largest of their kind and capable of three-times the energy storage capacity of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor.
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It is a significant breakthrough that clears a major hurdle for harnessing nuclear fusion as a viable energy source, with China now targeting to produce the first nuclear fusion generated electricity by 2030.
This latest success is the result of a sustained generational effort by China that began during the Cold War.
In 2025, the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) proved it was capable of sustaining plasma at 100 million C for 1,066 seconds in steady-state high-confinement mode.
Qin Jinggang, a researcher at the Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ASIPP), says the tests only represents 80 percent of the work, warning there is still a long road a head to achieve commercial viability on a large scale.
“The road to commercializing fusion energy remains long, but every core technological breakthrough shortens the distance between humanity and the ultimate clean energy,” he said.
The reactor still remains to be fully assembled and tested long-term under extreme conditions.
