China Outspends the US on Fusion in the Race for Energy's Holy Grail

A high-tech race is under way between the U.S. and China as both countries chase an elusive energy source: fusion. From a report: China is outspending the U.S., completing a massive fusion technology campus and launching a national fusion consortium that includes some of its largest industrial companies. Crews in China work in three shifts, essentially around the clock, to complete fusion projects. And the Asian superpower has 10 times as many Ph.D.s in fusion science and engineering as the U.S. The result is an increasing worry among American officials and scientists that an early U.S. lead is slipping away.

JP Allain, who heads the Energy Department's Office of Fusion Energy Sciences, said China is spending around $1.5 billion a year on fusion, nearly twice the U.S. government's fusion budget. What's more, China appears to be following a program similar to the road map that hundreds of U.S. fusion scientists and engineers first published in 2020 in hopes of making commercial fusion energy. Scientists familiar with China's fusion facilities said that if the country continues its current pace of spending and development, it will surpass the U.S. and Europe's magnetic fusion capabilities in three or four years.

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