21st IAEA Fusion Energy Conference opens in Chengdu
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-10-17 09:43
The 21st International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Fusion Energy Conference
kicked off in Chengdu, capital of China's Sichuan Province on Monday.
Over 800 scientists from around the world are attending the six-day
event, which is being hosted by a developing country for the first time.
"China was selected to host the conference because its nuclear research
institutes have achieved some outstanding experimental results in the field of
controlled nuclear fusion," said Pan Chuanhong, director of the Southwestern
Institute of Physics (SWIP).
Controlled nuclear fusion replicates the
energy generation process of the sun and is nicknamed 'artificial sun'.
China started research into 'artificial sun' in 1965 and the
Chengdu-based SWIP, the country's largest institute specializing in controlled
nuclear fusion and plasma physics studies, has since built three nuclear fusion
research devices.
"Deuterium and tritium extracted from one liter of sea
water would produce energy equivalent to 300 liters of gasoline after nuclear
fusion," Zhou Caipin, deputy director of Center for Fusion Science of
Southwestern Institute of Physics (SWIP), said. "It's unlimited energy will
solve the dearth of fossil fuels such as oil and coal and it is much cleaner
than fission." (For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)
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