Thermonuclear Fusion Reactor Tested in China

Chinese scientists successfully tested a thermonuclear fusion reactor Thursday, raising their energy-hungry country’s profile in the new but uncertain technology that promises clean power, state media reported.

According to the government’s New China News Agency, scientists said deuterium and tritium atoms had been fused at 180 million degrees for nearly three seconds. The report did not specify whether the device, in the eastern Chinese city of Hefei, had succeeded at producing more energy than it consumed, the main obstacle to making fusion commercially viable.