<p class="title">A ground-breaking fusion reactor built by Chinese scientists is underscoring Beijing's determination to be at the core of clean energy technology, as it eyes a fully-functioning plant by 2050.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Sometimes called an "artificial sun" for the sheer heat and power it produces, the doughnut-shaped Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) that juts out on a spit of land into a lake in eastern Anhui province, has notched up a succession of firsts.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Most recently in November, it became the first facility in the world to generate 100 million degrees Celsius (212 million Fahrenheit) -- six times as hot as the sun's core.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Such mind-boggling temperatures are crucial to achieving sustainable nuclear fusion reactions, which promise an inexhaustible energy source.</p>.<p class="bodytext">EAST's main reactor stands within a concrete structure, with pipes and cables spread outward like spokes that connect to a jumble of sensors and other equipment encircling the core. A red Chinese flag stands on top of the reactor.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We are hoping to expand international cooperation through this device (EAST) and make Chinese contributions to mankind's future use of nuclear fusion," said Song Yuntao, a top official involved in the project, on a recent tour of the facility.</p>.<p class="bodytext">China is also aiming to build a separate fusion reactor that could begin generating commercially viable fusion power by mid-century, he added.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Some six billion yuan ($890 million) has been promised for the ambitious project.</p>.<p class="bodytext">EAST is part of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project, which seeks to prove the feasibility of fusion power.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Funded and run by the European Union, India, Japan, China, Russia, South Korea, and the United States, the multi-billion-dollar project's centrepiece will be a giant cylindrical fusion device, called a tokamak.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Now under construction in Provence in southern France, it will incorporate parts developed at the EAST and other sites, and draw on their research findings.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Fusion is considered the Holy Grail of energy and is what powers our sun.</p>.<p class="bodytext">It merges atomic nuclei to create massive amounts of energy -- the opposite of the fission process used in atomic weapons and nuclear power plants, which splits them into fragments.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Unlike fission, fusion emits no greenhouse gases and carries less risk of accidents or the theft of atomic material.</p>.<p class="bodytext">But sustaining the high temperatures and other unstable conditions necessary is both extremely difficult and prohibitively expensive -- the total cost of ITER is estimated at 20 billion euros ($22.5 billion).</p>.<p class="bodytext">Wu Songtao, a top Chinese engineer with ITER, conceded that China's technical capabilities on fusion still lag behind more developed countries and that US and Japanese tokamaks have achieved more valuable overall results.</p>.<p class="bodytext">But the Anhui test reactor underlines China's fast-improving scientific advancement and its commitment to achieving yet more.</p>.<p class="bodytext">China's capabilities "have developed rapidly in the past 20 years, especially after catching the ITER express train," Wu said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">In an interview with state-run Xinhua news agency in 2017, ITER's Director-General Bernard Bigot lauded China's government as "highly motivated" on fusion.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Fusion is not something that one country can accomplish alone," Song said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"As with ITER, people all over the world need to work together on this."</p>
<p class="title">A ground-breaking fusion reactor built by Chinese scientists is underscoring Beijing's determination to be at the core of clean energy technology, as it eyes a fully-functioning plant by 2050.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Sometimes called an "artificial sun" for the sheer heat and power it produces, the doughnut-shaped Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) that juts out on a spit of land into a lake in eastern Anhui province, has notched up a succession of firsts.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Most recently in November, it became the first facility in the world to generate 100 million degrees Celsius (212 million Fahrenheit) -- six times as hot as the sun's core.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Such mind-boggling temperatures are crucial to achieving sustainable nuclear fusion reactions, which promise an inexhaustible energy source.</p>.<p class="bodytext">EAST's main reactor stands within a concrete structure, with pipes and cables spread outward like spokes that connect to a jumble of sensors and other equipment encircling the core. A red Chinese flag stands on top of the reactor.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We are hoping to expand international cooperation through this device (EAST) and make Chinese contributions to mankind's future use of nuclear fusion," said Song Yuntao, a top official involved in the project, on a recent tour of the facility.</p>.<p class="bodytext">China is also aiming to build a separate fusion reactor that could begin generating commercially viable fusion power by mid-century, he added.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Some six billion yuan ($890 million) has been promised for the ambitious project.</p>.<p class="bodytext">EAST is part of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project, which seeks to prove the feasibility of fusion power.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Funded and run by the European Union, India, Japan, China, Russia, South Korea, and the United States, the multi-billion-dollar project's centrepiece will be a giant cylindrical fusion device, called a tokamak.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Now under construction in Provence in southern France, it will incorporate parts developed at the EAST and other sites, and draw on their research findings.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Fusion is considered the Holy Grail of energy and is what powers our sun.</p>.<p class="bodytext">It merges atomic nuclei to create massive amounts of energy -- the opposite of the fission process used in atomic weapons and nuclear power plants, which splits them into fragments.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Unlike fission, fusion emits no greenhouse gases and carries less risk of accidents or the theft of atomic material.</p>.<p class="bodytext">But sustaining the high temperatures and other unstable conditions necessary is both extremely difficult and prohibitively expensive -- the total cost of ITER is estimated at 20 billion euros ($22.5 billion).</p>.<p class="bodytext">Wu Songtao, a top Chinese engineer with ITER, conceded that China's technical capabilities on fusion still lag behind more developed countries and that US and Japanese tokamaks have achieved more valuable overall results.</p>.<p class="bodytext">But the Anhui test reactor underlines China's fast-improving scientific advancement and its commitment to achieving yet more.</p>.<p class="bodytext">China's capabilities "have developed rapidly in the past 20 years, especially after catching the ITER express train," Wu said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">In an interview with state-run Xinhua news agency in 2017, ITER's Director-General Bernard Bigot lauded China's government as "highly motivated" on fusion.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Fusion is not something that one country can accomplish alone," Song said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"As with ITER, people all over the world need to work together on this."</p>