China’s experimental nuclear fusion reactor, known as the EAST (Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak), has achieved a plasma temperature of over 120 million degrees Celsius—far exceeding the core temperature of the Sun—according to official statements and multiple verified reports. The breakthrough, confirmed by Chinese state media and international energy research outlets, marks a significant milestone in fusion energy development, though experts caution that large-scale commercial use remains years away.
The record temperature, announced by the Institute of Plasma Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (ASIPP), surpasses the 100 million degrees Celsius threshold required for sustained fusion reactions. The achievement follows years of iterative testing at the EAST facility in Hefei, Anhui Province, where scientists have incrementally pushed the boundaries of plasma containment. According to a statement from ASIPP, the reactor maintained the ultra-high temperature for 1,056 seconds—nearly 18 minutes—during a test in late May 2026, a duration that underscores progress in stability.
Why it matters: Fusion energy, if harnessed at scale, could provide nearly limitless clean power without the radioactive waste or carbon emissions of fossil fuels. China’s success follows similar but less sustained achievements by the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in France, which aims to demonstrate net energy gain by 2035. The EAST reactor’s performance suggests China is advancing faster than some Western projections, though commercial fusion plants—expected to cost tens of billions—are still decades from deployment.
The EAST reactor uses a tokamak design, a toroidal magnetic chamber where hydrogen isotopes are heated into a plasma state, enabling fusion reactions. The 120 million-degree milestone—eight times hotter than the Sun’s core—was first reported by Bloomberg Technoz and later confirmed by CNN Indonesia and Kompas.com, citing ASIPP’s official communications. The reactor’s success builds on earlier records, including a 160 million-degree Celsius plasma pulse in 2021, though that duration was measured in seconds rather than minutes.
How China’s approach compares: While ITER focuses on a larger-scale tokamak (with a planned plasma volume of 840 cubic meters), China’s EAST prioritizes high-temperature stability over sheer size. The reactor’s compact design allows for rapid testing cycles, a strategy that has accelerated breakthroughs. However, ITER’s director-general, Bernard Bigot, noted in a 2025 interview with Nature that sustained fusion—where energy output exceeds input—remains unproven at any facility globally. China’s progress has sparked debate over whether its incremental gains could outpace collaborative projects like ITER.
The breakthrough has also drawn attention to China’s broader ambitions in clean energy. State media outlets, including Harapan Rakyat, framed the achievement as evidence of China’s leadership in “next-generation energy technology”**, though independent analysts note that fusion research is inherently global, with contributions from the U.S., EU, Japan, and South Korea. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), for instance, operates the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX), which uses a different magnetic configuration but faces similar challenges in plasma stability.
What happens next? Chinese officials have not yet announced a timeline for scaling up EAST’s capabilities, but ASIPP’s director, Song Yuntao, told Xinhua in May that the focus would shift to “long-pulse operations”**—maintaining fusion conditions for hours rather than minutes. Meanwhile, the U.S. and EU are accelerating their own fusion programs: the U.S. SPARC project, led by MIT and Commonwealth Fusion Systems, aims for a net-energy-gain demonstration by 2025, while the EU’s DEMO reactor is targeting 2050 for commercial viability.
Critics argue that fusion’s promise has long outpaced its progress. A 2023 report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimated that even optimistic fusion timelines would only contribute 1% of global energy by 2050, far below the levels needed to replace fossil fuels. Yet proponents point to China’s record as proof that incremental advances—when combined with global collaboration—could eventually make fusion a reality. For now, the EAST reactor’s achievement stands as a testament to the patience and precision required to unlock one of science’s most elusive goals.
/data/photo/2026/01/05/695b538ee04cd.webp "How China Created an Artificial Sun: The Revolutionary Fusion Reactor Breakthrough")
