After yesterday’s post about ITER, I was surprised to read that China has an artificial sun that ‘solves’ fusion. One thing you should know is that China’s HL-3 nuclear fusion reactor may be a step in the right direction, but it’s still just a tiny blip on the long and winding road towards viable fusion energy. Despite all the fanfare and catchy nicknames like “artificial sun,” this reactor is still lightyears away from producing any real energy. And let’s not forget that there are already dozens of active tokamaks around the world contributing to the larger ITER project in France, so China’s achievement is not exactly groundbreaking.

An interesting thing about this is that the Chinese state-run media is quick to hype up this reactor and its fancy new magnetic field design, but fail to mention the numerous setbacks and flaws in their experiment. It’s almost as if they’re trying to distract us from the fact that this is just another expensive and show-offy attempt at nuclear fusion.

The thing that gets me about this is that China’s other tokamak project, EAST, has been in development since the early 2000s. So not only do they have one massive money-sucking machine, but now they have two. At this rate, they’ll have a whole fleet of “artificial suns” before we even come close to achieving actual fusion energy.

But let’s not forget the language barrier and the state-controlled media outlets that make it almost impossible to fact check anything without risking our heads exploding from all the propaganda. It’s no wonder we’re left scratching our heads and wondering what the heck is going on in China’s nuclear fusion research.

So yeah – China has an ‘artificial sun’ but it hasn’t quite ‘solved’ fusion. We deserve better science and technology focus. Good enough isn’t good enough when it comes to something as important as fusion energy. We can’t keep dumbing things down and hyping up small achievements just to make everyone happy. It’s time to demand real progress and accountability in the pursuit of fusion energy. Otherwise, we’ll be chasing after fake suns for eternity.