Dubbed the “artificial sun,” the Burning Plasma Experimental Superconducting Tokamak (BEST) is under construction in Hefei, east China’s Anhui Province. The BEST facility represents one of China’s major ventures into controlled nuclear fusion and is poised to attempt the world’s first fusion energy power generation demonstration.
bonus article: https://english.cas.cn/newsroom/cas-in-media/202604/t20260417_1157472.shtml (Burning Plasma Experimental Superconducting Tokamak under Construction in Hefei, China’s Anhui)
I remember decades ago when i was in high school they took us on a field trip to ITER and they were all promising it would just be a few more years and fusion would be commercially viable. Feels like in Europe we are just treading water and getting nowhere… China really is humanity’s hope.
I’m 38 and when I was 15 the school physics department was covered in posters about ITER. I was so hopeful for the future at that age.
This may have become a possibility had Europe not expelled Russian nuclear fusion scientists, considering the Tokomak design originates from them. Still doubtful but I think that decision really sealed the nail in the ITER coffin.