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The Fully Superconducting Tokamak EAST Marks 20 Years of Operation: From a 3-Second First Cry to Thousand-Second Steady State, China's "Artificial Sun" Opens a Leap Toward Fusion Engineering

On September 28, 2006, the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), independently designed and developed by the Institute of Plasma Physics (ASIPP) under the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, successfully achieved its first plasma discharge on Hefei Science Island, with a current of 200 kA and a duration of nearly 3 seconds. This historic moment marked the official completion and operation of the world's first fully superconducting non-circular cross-section nuclear fusion experimental device, propelling China into the club of fully superconducting tokamak technology ahead of others. Over the past two decades, this artificial sun has completed more than 160,000 physical discharge experiments...

2026-09-28

European Investment Bank to invest €40 million in Finnish small modular reactor company Steady Energy

The European Investment Bank will invest up to €40 million (about $46 million) in Finnish small modular reactor company Steady Energy. The company's LDR-50 reactor is specifically designed for district heating networks, and this is also the European Investment Bank's first investment in small modular reactor technology. The European Investment Bank is jointly owned by the 27 EU member states, and these member states do not have a consistent attitude toward nuclear energy. In the past, the bank usually avoided new nuclear power projects and invested only in projects related to nuclear safety, such as Chernobyl-related projects. However, over the past year or so, the European Investment Bank has provided loans for the refurbishment project of a reactor in Romania, as well as for the Tricastin...

2026-09-16