The inside story of the battle for nuclear fusion supremacy

Competition has begun to unleash technology that can realize scalable commercial nuclear fusion. Nuclear fusion has been regarded as the “holy grail” of energy for the past century, and while it is always close to reality, it is always out of reach. Currently, however, progress in nuclear fusion experiments is progressing rapidly, and success is imminent. Therefore, superpowers with financial resources around the world are investing heavily in nuclear fusion research in order to become the first country to provide almost limitless clean energy using energy forms that move the sun.

The United States and China have emerged as clear pioneers of this competition, continuously advocating breakthroughs in nuclear fusion, and investing large sums of money to compete for further progress. So far, Western countries have taken the lead and achieved some of the most significant nuclear fusion breakthroughs in the past decade. China has also played an important role in nuclear fusion development on the world stage, but its results generally lag behind those of Western countries on a smaller scale.

This month, China's tokamak nuclear reactor succeeded in generating a magnetic field for the first time, achieving an important breakthrough. However, the breakthrough was relatively small, and this isn't the first time this kind of reactor has achieved this milestone. The first tokamak reactor to generate a magnetic field was the T-1 reactor developed by Russia in 1958. The Chinese experiment, like other experiments of the same type, provides important data to ITER (China also participated), which is France's global nuclear fusion mega-project, but that in itself is not a major breakthrough.

However, according to recent news, China is ahead of the competition in terms of building its own nuclear fusion industry, which could soon be synonymous with major advances in this field. China has lagged behind Western countries in nuclear fusion results in recent years, but with current investments in the same technology, it is on track to overtake America's magneto-nuclear fusion capabilities in Europe within 5 years.

China is leading intensive efforts to be at the forefront of global nuclear fusion research. More money is spent on fusion research than any other country, at around $1.5 billion a year, double that of the United States. Furthermore, since China has access to the most developed and extensive energy supply chain in the world, the path towards the realization of an artificial sun is even smoother and more cost-effective.

Furthermore, China utilizes a skilled workforce that no other country can match. China has 10 times more doctorate degrees in fusion science and engineering than the US, and is currently building a huge fusion technology campus. It has also launched a national nuclear fusion consortium composed of strong members involving several of China's largest industrial enterprises.

China is spending more manpower and time than its competitors (a team of fusion researchers working in 3 shifts and proceeding with the project around the clock), but it has eliminated even more resistance by following established nuclear fusion project plans formulated by the United States. “They're developing our long-term plans,” JP Allan, the Energy Department's director of fusion energy science, told The Wall Street Journal. “As you can imagine, it's very frustrating.”

In a sense, the competition between the US and China is not just a battle of wallets and wills, but an ideological battle. A recent editorial in the South China Morning Post argues that “the hot technology sector may be a real battle between Chinese state capitalism and America's 'free market' capitalism.” Furthermore, it was found that if clack and clack checks can be cut without a bipartisan decision-making process or troublesome regulatory hurdles to protect the environment, markets, and workers, a great deal of momentum for research and development can be generated.

“American billionaire oligarchs” such as Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, George Soros, Peter Thiel, and OpenAI's Sam Altman are deeply involved in promoting nuclear fusion in the US, but it remains to be seen whether they are comparable to China's national system.