This past July, China completed the world’s largest fusion magnet, which is designed for its Burning Plasma Experimental Superconducting Tokamak (BEST), an advanced nuclear fusion project, also known as an "artificial sun." This advancement marks a major engineering milestone for the project, as the country has its sights set on leading the energy market in the future, hoping to achieve fusion power by 2030.
The magnet is able to keep plasma, the matter which is hotter than the sun’s core, suspended without touching the reactor.
Indeed, this new development is impressive, but this is not the first artificial sun project that China has managed to master. Another example would be its Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) fusion energy reactor, a project that started operating in 2006 and was the country’s first fully super conducting tokamak.
Back in January 2025, according to Live Science, the EAST fusion energy reactor broke its own 403-second record, sustaining plasma for an incredible 1,000 seconds.
With all the recent developments in place, scientists are excited about the potential of the technology to offer a viable solution to the ongoing global energy crisis. Click through the gallery to learn more about the importance of "artificial sun" projects.