Comparatively low-cost nuclear fusion project shows promise after first year of experiments

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3155546/chinese-scientists-strike-early-gold-race-nuclear-fusion-power

Via email: Fusion researchers everywhere want more money. Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences began their experiments into fusion power last summer. However, the government gave the team just $156 million over 6 years. (The boondoggle) ITER in France will consume $45 to $65 billion (if not more). They wanted to improve on results at the US National Ignition Facility over the summer. So the team needed to figure out how to do it on a tiny budget and with less powerful lasers. Eventually, they turned to a process developed in 1997 by Z Jie, a renowned Chinese physicist. The method involves weaker laser beams aimed at two tiny gold cones. When hit by the lasers, each directs H plasma  toward the other. When the plasma beams collide with precisely the right parameters, fusion  occurs. While the gold cones vaporize after fusion, the cost will be “extremely small — if not negligible — in the future operation of a power plant,” “A small grain of gold can make thousands of cones.” Though the team did encounter some issues in their experiments, Zhang says that they were able to make considerable progress. They hope to scale their research (with more money) to “lift the game to a whole new level.”

Related: Helion's approach to fusion: How it works https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlNfP3iywvI A New Way to Achieve Nuclear Fusion: Helion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bDXXWQxK38