Technology AI, Science and New Things
Not content with appearing to beat the US in low-cost AI, Chinese engineers may be doing the same in nuclear fusion.
Last week scientists at a lab in Hefei claimed to have achieved a sustained fusion reaction for a record 1066 seconds at temperatures hotter than the sun.
On Tuesday Reuters reported on construction of a giant laser inertial fusion plant near Mianyang in Sichuan province.
Satellite images suggest the plant is half as big again as the US National Ignition Facility in California – although that remains the only lab to have achieved the “ignition” after which it’s named; a reaction that yields more energy than required to start it.
Laser fusion devices’ main purpose is usually to test the readiness of H-bombs without having to detonate them.
Limitless clean energy from fusion tokamaks, which hold superheated plasma in a shape like a donut, is the holy grail of many environmentalists – and of energy-hungry AI companies.
