China just tested a 582-ton fusion magnet with 3x the stored energy of ITER's, built every component domestically, and did it in 6 years. ITER has 35 member countries, started in 2006, and won't produce first plasma until 2034.
The magnet is a D-shaped ring 21 meters long. It generates 6.5 tesla, over 4x the field of a hospital MRI, strong enough to hold a 100 million degree plasma cloud in mid-air. The sun's core sits at 15 million degrees. Nothing physical survives contact with fuel that hot, so the magnet is the cage.
The number worth quoting is the cheapest one. The team cut the price of high-temperature superconducting tape from 400 yuan per meter to 100. Magnets are the most expensive part of any tokamak. Cut the superconductor 4x and fusion stops being a science project and starts being a cost curve.
That cost curve is the actual race. ITER was designed to prove the physics, and its budget grew from $6B to over $22B while first plasma slipped 9 years. China ran the physics and the supply chain in parallel, and the magnet program spun up a full domestic industry for superconducting materials, precision structures, and system integration along the way.
The pit in this video is BEST, the reactor in Hefei scheduled for completion in 2027 with first fusion electricity targeted around 2030. Fusion dates rarely hold, and this one may not either.
But the magnet is real, tested, and sitting in Hefei. One country built a bigger magnet in 6 years than 35 countries managed in 20.
Megatron (@Megatron_ron)
NEW: 🇨🇳 China's nuclear fusion research has completed a massive magnet weighing 582 tons.
The goal is an "unlimited energy" artificial sun.
They plan to start the first power generation by 2030.
A safe, CO2-zero ultimate energy race.
Video
— https://nitter.net/Megatron_ron/status/2081684964131684716#m