China is about to start building the world’s first fusion-fission power plant in Jiangxi Province, and says it should be generating 100 megawatts of continuous electricity for the national grid by 2030.
According to a Chinese-language online platform that aggregates bidding and procurement information, the developer of the Xinghuo high-temperature superconducting reactor has launched a public tender for an environmental impact assessment.
The 20 billion yuan (US$2.76 billion) reactor is a joint venture between the state-owned China Nuclear Industry 23 Construction Corporation and Lianovation Superconductor, a spin-off from Lianovation Optoelectronics, the South China Morning Post reports.
The reactor’s name, Xinghuo, means spark and is said to come from a Mao Zedong quote: “A single spark can start a prairie fire.”
[See more: Google is going to use small nuclear reactors to power AI data centres]
An agreement signed in 2023 said the aim is achieve an unprecedented Q value, or energy gain factor, of more than 30. (Energy gain factor is the ratio of fusion power produced in a nuclear fusion reactor to the power required to maintain the plasma in steady state.)
For comparison, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor – a nuclear fusion research megaproject under construction in France – is targeting a Q value of above 10.
Nuclear fusion combines two light atomic nuclei to form a single heavier one, releasing massive amounts of energy in the process. It’s how the sun generates power, and is far more powerful than nuclear fission, which splits heavy atomic nuclei like uranium. Fission is how existing nuclear power plants work.
If up and running by the end of the decade, Xinghuo would likely be the first major hybrid power plant combining both processes to deliver electricity for practical uses.
