“Handsome Dad” : the world’s first commercial fusion reactor?

Kuafu: Handsome Dad

They translate “Kuafu” as a gentle giant. Better is “Handsome Dad” as Kuā 夸 is handsome and Fù 父 is father. As in me. 

Either way, it’s the cute nickname of China’s latest advance in the seemingly ever-nascent fusion power. 

Now they’re saying commercial fusion is 30-50 years away. Which is further in the future that it was when they were telling us fusion is twenty years away.

We’re hoping, of course. From today’s news, “China launches ‘Kuafu’ nuclear fusion research facility”:

China has launched its largest nuclear fusion research facility – nicknamed after a mythical giant – as it continues its quest to build an “artificial sun”. 

A Xinhua report on Monday revealed for the first time the interior of the completed main building of the facility in east China’s Anhui province.

It is formally known as the Comprehensive Research Facility for Fusion Technology (CRAFT) but has been nicknamed “Kuafu” after a mythical figure who attempted to capture the sun.

The report showed some of the facility’s experimental components, including a prototype of one of eight massive orange segment-inspired pieces that come together to form a hollow doughnut-shaped vacuum chamber where the fusion experiments will take place.