China’s next-generation “artificial sun” project has reached a major construction milestone with the completion of the main complex for the Burning Plasma Experimental Superconducting Tokamak (BEST) facility in Hefei, east China’s Anhui Province.

The facility is designed to recreate the fusion reactions that power the sun, with the long-term goal of developing a virtually inexhaustible source of clean energy.

Construction of BEST has accelerated in recent months, with key components arriving at the site since July and more than half of the overall work now completed. Engineers have entered a challenging stage of assembling the device inside the newly completed complex.

The process involves building the fusion system layer by layer, including a vacuum vessel, cold shield and powerful toroidal field magnets that will confine ultra-hot plasma.

Scheduled for completion by the end of 2027, BEST will conduct deuterium-tritium fusion experiments targeting 20 to 200 megawatts of fusion power.