A conference in Beijing on July 10 sponsored by the China NatIonal Nuclear Corporation outlined the three-pronged strategy for full development of nuclear energy. China’s nuclear program has now gone from the third biggest nuclear program to the second. China continues to develop its light-water reactor system. In the second stage, it’s working to develop a system of fast breeder reactors. The third stage is the development of thermonuclear fusion reactors. This is seen as a comprehensive program for the development of a nuclear-based economy to deal with problems of production, energy and the environment. The extensive work on fusion is geared to play a major role in the construction of the ITER reactor.
It was announced on July 8 that the Huanliu-3 fusion reactor that has been built at Southwestern Institute of Physics in Chengdu has now reached the milestone of developing its own magnetic field, which is entirely new in design. Both Huanliu-3, as well as work at the EAST reactor at the Institute of Plasma Physics in Hefei, are also feeders for the ITER program. Despite these reports, the details of much of what has been achieved in the Chinese reactors has probably not been fully revealed in the public literature.
