Today the Chinese government became the only national body to lay out concrete steps for reaching large-scale introduction of fusion power, through the interim development of the fission-fusion hybrid, as promoted by Edward Teller during the 1980s SDI program of Lyndon LaRouche and President Reagan. The government approved construction of the world’s largest pulsed-power plant with plans to generate nuclear fusion energy by 2028. The reactor Z-FFR will be a hybrid fusion-fission reactor. The hybrid concept brings fusion into the realm of tackling the significant engineering challenges, i.e., materials, power conditioning equipment, etc, without having to solve all of the scientific issues.
According to media reports, in a presentation, Peng Xianjue, a professor with the Chinese Academy of Engineering Physics, and described as a top nuclear weapons scientist, explained that the 2028 hybrid reactor will not place power on the grid, but will be primarily used to support the nuclear fission industry by reprocessing so-called “nuclear waste,” processing the thorium and natural uranium ore for fuel. By 2035, a full-scale fusion reactor will be producing energy directly into the grid.
