This question was broached in a recent article in the South China Morning Post, which points to China’s extensive supply chain as the underpinning of a fusion economy. China has had some recent successes in fusion development. In June, an experimental Chinese tokamak in Shanghai, the HH70, successfully obtained its first plasma, a feat in itself. While this was a more recent undertaking in fusion in comparison with the work that has been ongoing for years in Hefei at the Institute of Plasma Physics and in Chongqing at the Southwestern University of Physics, the Shanghai tokamak represented the fastest-ever development and building of a superconducting tokamak device. The HH70 is smaller and cheaper to build, and was constructed in just two years, backed by China’s thriving industrial chain and engineering strength.
While it will take some time before this or other tokamaks are producing net energy, developing fusion has become more of an engineering project. Dennis Whyte, former director of the Plasma Science and Fusion Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), told the Post that, as fusion technology advances, the supply chain and technology development will be critical. “[Fusion] is no longer just studied for science’s sake but is pivoting towards implementation as a new energy source,” he said.
In this respect, China, with its extensive supply chain, is in the best position to take any breakthrough quickly to an engineering design. In December, Beijing announced the creation of a new state-owned company, China Fusion Energy, with the task of pooling resources from across the country to bring a nuclear fusion reactor to life. China aims to build an industrial prototype fusion reactor by 2035 and to have the technology in large-scale commercial use by 2050.
