On August 22, 2022, Shaanxi Xinwen Lianbo reports on Startorus Fusion’s No.0 device experimental site, located in the north intelligent manufacturing park of Xi’an Economic and Technological Development Zone, as part of the sub-headline stories. Breaking ground on June 6, the site transformation project is coming to a conclusion and expected to complete and be put into operation in September this year.

Startorus Fusion is a commercial enterprise engaged in the development of controlled fusion energy, also known as the “artificial sun”. The key R&D members all graduated from the Department of Engineering Physics at Tsinghua University. The fusion group of the Institute of Nuclear Energy Science and Engineering Management under the department has been studying magnetically confined controlled fusion and operating China’s first spherical tokamak for more than 20 years. Building on HTS spherical tokamaks with strong fields, Startorus’s team proposes an innovative technological approach: controlled fusion of repeated magnetic reconnection characterized by reconnection heating and multi-stroke operation akin to internal combustion engines. The principle verification device of the approach will be finished assembling in October this year. If all goes right, the device will merge the two plasmas into one and heat it to the expected 17 million degrees Celsius, reaching the same top level with other spherical tokamaks of the same kind.

Since the project took root in Xi’an, the Qinchuangyuan Platform has greatly helped Startorus to develop, with its friendly business environment and supporting policies. Mush assisted by the north intelligent manufacturing park of Norinco Group (Xi’an) High-tech Industry Base, Shaanxi Zhengben Environmental Engineering Co., Ltd., the construction unit, overcame lingering COVID-19 pandemic and stubborn high temperatures to complete the overall site transformation project effectively and efficiently on schedule. Looking forward, Startorus will give full play to Xi’an’s rich scientific, educational, and industrial resources and contribute it bit to the development and achievement of commercial controlled fusion energy.