The shipping site. Photo provided by Sinomach Heavy Equipment Group Co., Ltd

On Sept. 27, a completion and shipping ceremony for the batch-produced TF coil cases of the Burning Plasma Experimental Superconducting Tokamak (BEST) project, the world's first compact fusion energy experimental device, was held at the Deyang base of China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC). With this milestone, all eight TF coil cases in the batch, manufactured by CMEC, have completed final assembly and were successfully shipped.

The BEST project, fully named the Burning Plasma Experimental Superconducting Tokamak, was led in design by the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and constructed by Fusion New Energy (Anhui) Co., Ltd.

As the world's first compact fusion energy experimental device, it is a critical facility developed specifically to bridge the engineering gap between "experimental reactors" and "demonstration reactors".

Controlled nuclear fusion, commonly known as an "artificial sun", mimics the nuclear fusion reactions inside the sun by heating deuterium from seawater and tritium produced from lithium to temperatures exceeding 100 million degrees Celsius, causing atomic nuclei to collide, form helium, and release tremendous energy. As a core component of the superconducting magnet system, the TF coil case must operate reliably over the long term under extreme conditions of ultra-low temperatures, intense magnetic fields, and exceptionally high stress, imposing stringent requirements on manufacturing materials.

CMEC completed the manufacture of eight TF coil cases over a period of 14 months, achieving a leap from single-unit prototyping to batch delivery. During development, the team overcame multiple extreme manufacturing challenges and broke through critical technological bottlenecks, advancing from initial breakthroughs to large-scale engineering application and establishing full-process manufacturing capabilities spanning raw material development to testing and assembly.

This batch of products will be used in the construction of the BEST facility, supporting the implementation of the national controlled nuclear fusion strategy and driving the improvement and upgrading of related industrial chains.

The construction of the BEST project has now entered a critical phase. The Institute of Plasma Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and CMEC have signed another contract for the batch production of shielding blocks, marking a transition in their cooperation from isolated breakthroughs to systematic synergy.

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