Who will win the biggest technology race of the century? China, Germany, the UK, or the USA?

Sometimes predictions are right, like in the case of the current climate crisis, but often real change sneaks upon us. The biggest discoveries catch us all off guard, like in the case of the internet and automation.

There is another breakthrough discovery that no one in society is talking about or prepared for: clean, safe, and superabundant fusion energy.

There is another breakthrough discovery that no one in society is talking about or prepared for: clean, safe, and superabundant fusion energy.

Teams in China, Germany, both coasts of the US, and the UK are running the fusion race. They are getting their billions of dollars in backing from governments, universities, billionaires, startups and large companies. And whoever wins will become as wealthy and as powerful Standard Oil’s Rockefellers.

The winners of this race will achieve the monumental legacy of launching human civilization into the next phase of our history.

Fusion energy sounds unbelievable when you first hear about it.

Fusion energy means making a small star here on earth and then using its heat to make electricity.

Sounds like science fiction, right?

It is 100% emission-free (like nuclear energy), but produces no radioactive waste or fallout (the only byproduct is some helium), no expensive inputs (the fuel is a small amount of hydrogen), and the reactors cannot “meltdown” or “go nuclear” (anything goes wrong and the reaction just fizzles out). And the energy density of fusion is far higher than fossil fuels and infinitely higher than renewables (bye-bye thousands of acres of solar panels and wind farms).

And you can’t make bombs out of it.

It sounds like a fantasy, but it is very, very real. Teams of scientists all over the world are spending billions of dollars and racing at breakneck speed to make the first fusion reactor.

The Teams in The Race

Here is a rundown of the biggest teams in the fusion race.

China

China has no oil. They have a ton of coal but they know burning it all would mean ecological disaster. Fusion for China means fossil fuel independence and that means geopolitical energy dominance. They have strong motivations to be the first across the fusion finish line.

As the BBC reported in April of 2018, China has built a classic donut-shaped fusion reactor called a “Tokamak.” Their reactor aptly named—Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (or EAST)—was able to sustain 100 seconds of stable fusion plasma, a world record at that time.

Inside a classic donut-shaped tokamak

As the race heats up for fusion, expect China to start making major investments to keep up and eventually dominate fusion. They have the incentives and the infrastructural knowledge and will to build fusion facilities at the scale Western countries have not been able to muster.

International — ITER

If Elon Musk renamed ITER, he would call it “The Big Ass Tokamak” because that’s what it is.

ITER is insanely massive. Their organization and its reactor.