China Plans Ambitious Nuclear Fusion Target For 2030

China has set its sights on a new fusion-fission power plant that could be up and running by the end of the decade. The reactor is called Xinghuo; it will reportedly cost $27.6 billion and will be built on central China’s Yaohu Science Island, according to the South China Morning Post. Because Xinghuo is a fusion-fission plant, it will make use of both technologies in its production of energy. Nuclear fusion is a reaction in which two or more light nuclei combine to form a heavier nucleus, releasing a huge amount of energy in the process. Nuclear fusion is the process that powers stars like our Sun, and though humans can catalyze nuclear fusion in Earth-based reactors, scientists have not yet made the process efficient enough to produce more energy than it takes to power the reaction. Nuclear fission, conversely, produces energy by splitting heavy nuclei into other nuclei, producing energy and waste in the process. Nuclear fission is already used widely as an energy source, but clea ... Read full article.