Key points
- China is building a facility to master near-limitless clean energy
- “China will win this race”: expert
- Countries worldwide are in a race to master in clean energy
WASHINGTON: China is building a giant laser facility to master near-limitless clean energy, according to CNN. It reported that images from space reveal an enormous X-shaped building rising up from rocky terrain in China.
CNN cited analysts as saying, “This is a huge research facility, and it could be a sign China is leaping ahead in the quest to harness this futuristic energy source.”
Clean energy
Nuclear fusion offers the tantalizing prospect of abundant, clean energy without the long-lived radioactive waste problem of nuclear fission, the world’s current nuclear energy technology. Countries and companies across the world are in a race to master it, according to CNN.
CNN claimed that the US has long been a leader. The National Ignition Facility in California, which also uses laser-ignition technology, made a huge fusion energy breakthrough in 2022. In a world first, NIF scientists achieved a successful nuclear fusion reaction with a net energy gain.
It was a big move forward in the decades-long quest to recreate on Earth the reaction which powers the sun and other stars. But this new facility in China could be a sign China is starting to edge ahead, according to CNN.
The US is still ahead in the fusion race for now, but “China is moving fast” and has shown it can move from concept to completion much faster than any government programms, CNN cited Andrew Holland, chief executive of the Fusion Industry Association as saying.
“It is time to build, it is time to invest,” Holland said. “If the US and its allies do not, then China will win this race.”
However, the CNN report did not include the viewpoint of Chinese officials.
