Major Installation of International Artificial Sun Fusion Reactor Starts

A launch ceremony for the major installation of the artificial sun fusion reactor of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) organization was held on July 28 in France.

Employees of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), who participated in the project, attended the event.

They said that they will fulfill their responsibilities and take advantage of CNNC's scientific innovation and engineering experience to work together with their international counterparts and complete the project with high quality.

CNNC has highly valued installation of the artificial sun's core part and provided anti-pandemic supplies to ITER during the COVID-19 outbreak.

What's more, a work team of the Sino-French consortium led by CNNC was sent to France in early 2020 when the pandemic was raging in the country.

So far, 51 employees of CNNC's European office and China Nuclear Industry 23 Construction Co., Ltd. are working at the project's site.

Under support of ITER and with strong nuclear fusion technologies developed by CNNC's Southwestern Institute of Physics and the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the installation made smooth progress.

On May 28 local time CNNC completed hoisting of the dewar base which was a prologue to installation of the facility's main device.

The artificial sun project, also known as a controllable nuclear fusion facility, is a longed-for goal of global nuclear fusion researchers.

ITER is an international major scientific engineering program with great scale and international impact. China joined the program in 2006.

The CNNC-led consortium and the ITER organization reached agreement on the TAC1 project to install the most important core facility of the ITER's tokamak device in September 2019.

The TAC1 project is to the artificial sun what a reactor is to a nuclear island.

CNNC has acted as a main force in development of China's nuclear technology and nuclear power. Its long-term research and development of nuclear fusion energy source has promoted the country's development in the field and improved China's competitiveness in the international nuclear fusion industry.

Its efforts also contribute to future energy exploration.

A view of the installation site of the ITER-initiated artificial sun fusion reactor in France [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

Lin Zuhuang (L3), a representative of the CNNC-led Sino-French consortium's team that participated in the installation project, attends the launch ceremony. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

(Executive editor: Wang Ruoting)