FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
China Is Creating a Fusion Industry, Through Its Work on ITER
Jan. 30, 2018 (EIRNS)—China has completed the manufacture of a high-technology component for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) tokamak, and this week, it has been shipped to the construction site in France. Each of the ITER partners—the United States, Russia, Europe, China, South Korea, Japan, and India—is responsible for an array of components for what will be the world’s largest tokamak fusion experiment.
In each country, ITER has presented technical challenges, especially in precision and scale, that have stretched its manufacturing capability. To China, its manufacture of the four steam generators just shipped to France, built upon its advanced nuclear capabilities, represents the ability to meet international standards for building future fusion devices. In comments to Global Times yesterday, Gui Liming, a nuclear safety expert at Tsinghua University, explained that the fact that the Chinese components have met the standards and been accepted by Europe for ITER, “represents China’s developments in the industry.” He said that now “Chinese enterprises engaged in producing devices for nuclear fusion are competitive with those of developed countries, including the U.S.”
China is looking at fusion, as not only a scientific challenge, but as a necessary energy source for the future, requiring a world-class manufacturing industry, which they are now starting to develop.
