- [Narrator] In just a few years, China has built this world-class fusion research campus from scratch while the US still lacks anything like it. It's a sign of China's growing investment in nuclear fusion, what many scientists consider the holy grail of clean energy. - If American companies don't lead on this, then the jobs, the wealth won't develop here, they'll develop in China. - [Narrator] We'll break down the race to achieve and commercialize nuclear fusion and what's at stake if China wins. Fusion has the potential to create nearly limitless energy with no carbon emissions and very limited radioactivity. In fusion, you combine two small atoms, like hydrogen, to form a single heavier one, and that releases a huge amount of energy. To make the atoms collide and fuse, they're heated to an extremely high temperature to form a plasma, which is basically a mix of positively and negatively charged particles.

- Up until probably five years or so ago, fusion was seen as a long-term, fundamental scientific challenge. There was a lot of open collaboration and discussion among scientists from around the world. - [Narrator] George Tynan is a global fusion expert who has worked with several of China's top universities, as well as China's first nuclear fusion research institute. - In the last five years or so, there's the beginning realization that this may not just be interesting science, but there may be a possibility that this could become an important, practical technology. - [Narrator] He says he hasn't been back to Chinese labs since before 2020, partly because the US government has discouraged it. Some scientists say fusion energy could be on the grid as early as the 2030s. China became a leader in the field after it joined the international nuclear fusion research and engineering megaproject called ITER in 2003.

Since then, it has invested heavily in domestic fusion infrastructure, research, and workforce. One of the leading candidates for a viable and practical fusion reactor is called a tokamak, a machine that confines plasma using strong magnetic fields. The US has two main government-funded tokamaks; China has three. Its fourth is expected to be completed in 2027. China has 10 times as many PhDs in fusion science and engineering as the US, and the Chinese government has launched new fusion education programs in China with a goal of training 1,000 new plasma physicists. - They work very long hours. Some of the experiments in China can operate on a 24/7 basis. I've seen them running multiple shifts. - [Narrator] That's partly because most Chinese tokamaks use superconducting magnetic coils, which can be left on for days or even weeks at a time. The US is moving towards superconducting magnets,

but has mostly been using copper magnets, which dissipate a lot of energy and need to be cooled down after being on for just a few seconds. - American fusion infrastructure in public facilities is quite old. They are honestly not of the leading edge. They do not compare with the things that China has. - [Narrator] The US Department of Energy says the DIII-D tokamak continues to be a world-leading device, and an update to the NSTX-U tokamak is almost complete. But some US scientists say China has a habit of copying US designs, for example, that new tokamak China is building. Some US scientists say it's a copy of one designed by Commonwealth Fusion Systems, the largest private fusion company in the US, and that's just one example. - The EAST tokamak, the idea for that experiment was actually originally generated here in this country in the 1990s, but for a variety of budgetary reasons,

the decision was made not to pursue that, and then in the early 2000s, they built that device with largely homegrown technology. - [Narrator] China's Institute of Plasma Physics didn't respond to requests for comment. Helion Energy, a US company, accused Chinese companies, ENN and HHMAX, of copying its plans, too. - One company launched a direct copycat program pursuing Helion's design, and another publicly stated its intent to replicate key aspects of Helion's approach. - [Narrator] ENN and HHMAX didn't respond to requests for comment. China also appears to be following a commercialization program similar to the roadmap that hundreds of US fusion scientists and engineers first published in 2020. - DOE has really not built anything within this plan. The Chinese have basically implemented and built the test stands that will enable them to commercialize. - [Narrator] The DOE says it is building new facilities

and that its fusion science and tech roadmap will be released next spring. It also says the new plan is different from China's public-sector-led approach, and the report won't have all the details, so it would be difficult for China to copy it. - There's a long history in China of being fast followers, of taking the knowledge learned and then investing it into domestic Chinese industry, and we've seen this play out in solar power, electric vehicles most recently, in high-speed rail. - [Narrator] The Chinese government is also spending double what the US is spending on fusion. In December 2023, the Chinese government launched a new state-owned company to pull resources from across the country. China's goal is to build the first industrial prototype fusion reactor by 2035 and to begin large-scale commercial production of fusion energy by 2050, according to a 2022 scientific report. In the US, industry experts say the fusion budget

hasn't been enough to keep up with inflation. So far, the US has attracted far more private investment than China. Of all the fusion companies founded since 1992, over 50% are US companies, just 4% are Chinese. - This is the key thing that the United States can leverage. - [Narrator] But China's private sector is quickly catching up. Though US industry experts say it's often difficult to distinguish between private and public funding in China. Energy Singularity, a startup in Shanghai, built its own tokamak in just two years. The company says it expects to have a device that can feed power to the grid before 2035. - Even if the US wins the race to fusion, we have to make sure that we can then scale up. We're concerned that there simply is not enough capacity in the United States, in like-minded countries to support the real exponential growth that we expect to see.

- [Narrator] One of China's advantages is that it already dominates manufacturing supply chains. - Important manufactured goods like power electronics, capacitors, China has really cornered the market on. - [Narrator] China is also building more nuclear reactors than any other country, which some industry experts say would give it an advantage when commercial fusion is reached. - We should expect it to be a net loss to American global influence around the world, that China will leverage this technology as something that they can support their Belt and Road allies with. - Their customers will need to buy from them and do business with them for the rest of the century. - [Narrator] US fusion experts seem optimistic about the private sector's progress, but they say the industry still needs support from the government to win this race. - We must establish and leverage public-private partnerships. - Commercial space came about because NASA invested over $500 million in a public-private partnership.

that supported SpaceX and Blue Origin. This is not something that's out of nowhere. - Fusion is a very hard problem to solve. It takes sustained effort sustained over many, many years, even over decades. Maintaining that level of energy and effort will be the biggest challenge in this country.

China Is Outspending the U.S. to Achieve the ‘Holy Grail’ of Clean Energy | WSJ U.S. vs. China

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