China plans to complete its "artificial sun" by 2027
China plans to finish building the experimental nuclear fusion reactor BEST, known as the "artificial sun," by 2027. The announcement was made by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning on social media platform X.
"The completion of the experimental superconducting tokamak with burning plasma is scheduled for 2027," Mao Ning stated.
According to her, the installation, developed by the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, could become the first in the world to generate electricity. The reactor is being built in Hefei, Anhui Province.
The device weighs over 400 tons and operates like a giant thermos. Its superconducting magnets are cooled to -269°C to contain plasma made from deuterium and tritium.
BEST is not China’s first device called an "artificial sun." Previously, that title belonged to the EAST tokamak, which set a world record in early 2025 by sustaining plasma for 1,066 seconds.
In May, Bloomberg reported that China might not launch its "artificial sun" until the middle of the 21st century.
