China completes main complex of ‘artificial sun’ reactor

The main complex for China's Burning Plasma Experimental Superconducting Tokamak (BEST) in Hefei, Anhui province, is finished, according to video footage released on Oct. 1. With the buildings done, the project now moves into the work of assembling the reactor itself. BEST is often called China's "artificial sun." It is the country's next attempt to show that fusion energy can be used to make electricity.youtube

Licensed footage distributed through Reuters Connect, Reuters' video service, said the main complex had been completed. Digitimes, a Taiwan-based technology outlet, reported that the BEST campus had formally opened and that assembly of key parts of the main device had begun. It said the programme had "entered a new engineering phase".digitimes+1

From construction site to assembly

Construction of BEST began in 2023, and the project is scheduled to be completed in 2027. The main building work went up over the past year. Xinhua photographed the site from the air in April 2026, describing BEST as "poised to attempt the world's first fusion energy power generation demonstration".english.news+1

Installation started in October 2025, when workers put in the Dewar base, the first key component. The Chinese Academy of Sciences called this a milestone toward generating electricity from fusion power. By August, the operator, China Fusion Energy, had entered the final stage of assembling the tokamak at the Institute of Energy of the Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center, according to the industry tracker Fusion Energy Base.fusionenergybase+1

Targets for burning plasma

BEST is a compact device. It is designed to run fusion experiments with deuterium and tritium, two forms of hydrogen, and to produce 20 to 200 megawatts of fusion power. Its main goal is net energy gain, meaning it would release more energy than is used to heat the plasma. In November 2025, Chinese officials launched an international research programme around the device and said it was due to be finished by the end of 2027.english.cas

The machine sits between two other Chinese projects. Before it came the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), also in Hefei. After it will come a planned demonstration reactor called the China Fusion Engineering Demo Reactor (CFEDR). Beijing Review reported that a commercial fusion power plant is planned for around 2050.fusionenergybase+1

Building on EAST's results

EAST has achieved several records that inform BEST's design. In January 2025, it held steady high-confinement plasma for 1,066 seconds. In January 2026, Nature reported that EAST researchers had pushed plasma density past a limit that has held back fusion reactors for decades. They reached densities 30% to 65% higher than the device normally achieves.bjreview+1

Hefei is also home to the CRAFT project, a related research facility. In July, it tested what was described as the world's largest superconducting magnet for fusion.instagram

The 2027 completion date is now the main test. China Fusion Energy will need to fit and commission the device's superconducting magnets and other systems inside the finished buildings, and that work is still under way.digitimes+1