Published on: 2026-07-15
Source: People’s Republic of China — Translation
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Hefei, July 15 /Xinhua/ — From July 6 to 19, the city of Hefei /Anhui Province, East China/ is hosting an international summer camp on advanced nuclear fusion and plasma research, organized by the Institute of Plasma Physics, part of the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The event involves 27 young people from 7 countries and regions of the world, including Russia, Thailand, and Italy. Among the participants are 16 young Russian scientists. Many of them have already visited China several times to participate in scientific research exchanges.
Participants visited the Comprehensive Research Facility for Fusion Technology /CRAFT/ for the experimental advanced superconducting tokamak /EAST/ model to familiarize themselves with cutting-edge technologies in the field of nuclear fusion.
EAST is also known as the Chinese “artificial sun.” Its ultimate goal is to create solar-like nuclear fusion using substances abundant in the sea to provide a continuous flow of clean energy. And CRAFT is the platform where engineers design and test key components of a fusion power reactor.
In January 2025, during an experiment, EAST achieved continuous plasma operation at high temperature for 1066 seconds, which was the longest operating time of such a device in the world. The breakthrough significantly exceeded the original world record of 403 seconds, which was also set by EAST in 2023.
Graduate student of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology Pavel Revyakin has visited EAST for the second time. According to him, the pace of EAST’s development is astonishing.
In the 1990s, Russia provided technical support to China in creating the country’s first superconducting experimental nuclear fusion device HT-7, which laid an important foundation for Chinese research in the field of nuclear fusion.
For decades, cooperation between the two parties continued to deepen. In May of this year, a Memorandum of Understanding was officially signed between the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China and the State Atomic Energy Corporation “Rosatom” on scientific and technical cooperation in the field of controlled thermonuclear fusion.
Master’s student of the Moscow Power Engineering Institute Maxim Andreev expressed hope that in the future Russia and China will be able to continue long-term cooperation in the field of thermonuclear energy, as this will have a huge positive impact on the development of thermonuclear technologies worldwide.
“Over the past 50 years, international cooperation has consistently served as an important driving force for the continuous development of research in the field of thermonuclear fusion, and the Institute of Plasma Physics has consistently benefited from it. We firmly believe that cooperation and interaction can accelerate progress in thermonuclear fusion research,” said Qian Jinping, deputy director of this institute, speaking about the purpose of this summer camp.
It was previously reported that China is accelerating the transition from fundamental research in thermonuclear fusion to large-scale engineering design. The construction of the Experimental Superconducting Tokamak with Burning Plasma /BEST/ is gaining momentum in the country. -0-
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