China is building a huge thermonuclear research center. It can be used both to study energy production and to help develop nuclear weapons.
The construction of the center became known thanks to satellite images. The center is being built in Mianyang Municipal District. The images show four remote “arms” that will contain the laser bays and the central experimental bay. It will contain a target chamber containing hydrogen isotopes. They will be fused together by powerful lasers, generating energy through fusion reactions. Similar processes occur in the interior of our Sun.
The Chinese facility is similar in design to the $3.5 billion U.S. National Ignition Facility (NIF), which is located in California. In 2022, for the first time in history, it managed to achieve a positive energy yield from a fusion reaction. About 3.15 megajoules of energy was then obtained, exceeding the 2.05 megajoules of energy used in lasers. The success was repeated three times in 2023.
Analysts estimate that the experimental bay at the Chinese facility is about 50 percent larger than at NIF, which is currently the largest fusion facility in the world. Official Beijing has not reported anything about the construction of the fusion center and has not commented in any way on the satellite images.
According to Omar Hurricane, chief scientist of the inertial confinement fusion program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which runs the NIF, the size of these facilities reflects the amount of energy the developers calculate must be applied to the target to achieve ignition.
“These days, I think you probably can build a facility that’s of equal energy or even more energetic ,” Hurricane said. But, he added, experimental fusion is not feasible at too small a scale.
In addition to energy production experiments, the complex can also be used to improve nuclear weapons. The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which both China and the U.S. have signed, prohibits nuclear explosions under any conditions. However, it permits “subcritical” explosive tests that do not result in nuclear reactions. Research on laser fusion, known as inertial confinement fusion, is also authorized. They allow the study of nuances of detonation that would otherwise require explosive testing and are critical to maintaining the operational readiness of the nuclear arsenal.
Earlier we covered whether a fusion engine could help humanity reach the stars.
According to Reuters
