Installation has begun at China’s BEST (Burning Experimental Superconducting Tokamak) under construction in Hefei, Anhui province. According to CCTV, the Dewar base, the key component of the installation, was successfully manufactured and accurately installed in the main reactor hall.
The Dewar base is the first major vacuum component of the main unit of the BEST device, as well as the largest vacuum component in China’s domestic fusion industry. With a base diameter of about 18 metres and a height of five metres, it weighs more than 400 tonnes. It is the heaviest component and will be located at the bottom of the entire BEST system where it will support a total weight of approximately 6,700 tonnes. Its installation established the basis for installation and adjustment of the remaining key elements.
BEST is an experimental facility for studying the physics of burning plasmas that uses high-field compact superconducting tokamaks technology and new technologies such as high-performance superconducting magnets, high-power neutral beam heating, and deuterium-tritium fusion fuels.
In May, construction of BEST officially began. It is expected that in two years it will be able to demonstrate net fusion energy production for the first time in the world, and by 2030 supply power to the first consumers.
