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Business Standard
19-05-2025
- Science
- Business Standard
China launches 12 satellites to build world's 1st space-based supercomputer
China has launched the first 12 satellites of its space-based supercomputing network, aiming to outpace Earth's most powerful systems with real-time, in-orbit data processing. Twelve advanced satellites, equipped with AI-powered computing systems and high-speed inter-satellite links, were launched into orbit last week aboard a Long March 2D rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre, according to state-run Guangming Daily. The satellites mark the first phase of China's groundbreaking Three-Body Computing Constellation – an ambitious space-based supercomputing network led by Zhejiang Lab. Once fully deployed, the constellation will deliver real-time data processing in orbit with a staggering capacity of 1,000 peta operations per second (POPS). The satellites in the planned 2,800-strong orbital supercomputer, created by ADA Space, Zhijiang Laboratory and Neijang High-Tech Zone, will be able to autonomously collect and process data without the need for terrestrial stations, the company said in a statement. Each of the 12 satellites can handle a staggering 744 trillion operations per second and are interlinked via ultra-fast laser connections capable of transferring data at up to 100 gigabits per second, according to Guangming Daily. Together, the initial cluster delivers 5 peta operations per second (POPS) of computing power and 30 terabytes of onboard storage. Equipped with an advanced space-based AI model featuring 8 billion parameters, these satellites can process raw data directly in orbit. They will also serve as testbeds for cutting-edge technologies, including cross-orbit laser communication and deep-space astronomical observations. According to the Chinese government, the mission, which marks a major step in China's space-based computing efforts, aims to build a network of thousands of satellites with a total computing power of 1,000 POPS. The constellation will enable real-time, in-orbit data processing to accelerate AI development in space. AI data centres in space: Power saving The idea of building AI-powered data centres in space could also offer a promising solution to Earth's growing climate concerns. The advantages of a space-based supercomputer extend far beyond faster communication, according to the South China Morning Post. Traditional satellites face significant bottlenecks—limited bandwidth and scarce ground stations mean that under 10 per cent of the data they collect ever reaches Earth. But orbiting data centres could revolutionise this process. As Harvard astronomer and space historian Jonathan McDowell told the outlet, these systems can harness solar power and release excess heat into space, dramatically cutting down on energy consumption and carbon emissions. He added that similar initiatives could soon emerge from the US and Europe. Global data centres are on track to consume over 1,000 terawatt hours of electricity annually by 2026 – a figure comparable to Japan's entire power usage – according to estimates from the International Energy Agency.
South China Morning Post
15-05-2025
- Science
- South China Morning Post
China launches satellites to start building the world's first supercomputer in orbit
China has launched the first batch of satellites for its space computing constellation, a system that could rival the most powerful ground-based supercomputers once fully deployed. Twelve satellites, each equipped with intelligent computing systems and inter-satellite communication links, were sent into orbit aboard a Long March 2D rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre around noon on Wednesday, according to state-owned Guangming Daily. Twelve satellites, each equipped with intelligent computing systems and inter-satellite communication links, were sent into orbit on Wednesday, according to state-owned Guangming Daily. Photo: Handout They are part of the Three-Body Computing Constellation, space-based infrastructure being developed by Zhejiang Lab. Once complete, the constellation would support real-time, in-orbit data processing with a total computing capacity of 1,000 peta operations per second (POPS) – or one quintillion operations per second – the report said. Jonathan McDowell, a space historian and astronomer at Harvard University, said the idea of cloud computing in space was 'very fashionable' right now. 'Orbital data centres can use solar power and radiate their heat to space, reducing the energy needs and carbon footprint,' he said. China, the United States and Europe could be expected to deploy such orbital data centres in the future, McDowell said. 'Today's Chinese launch is the first substantial flight test of the networking part of this concept.'
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
China is laughing at the West's lack of ‘stamina'. It has a point
China has turned up the trolling. When Donald Trump announced his April 2 'liberation day' tariffs singling out China, Communist Party propagandists responded with AI-generated movie clips of the US president and JD Vance, his vice-president, wearily stitching hats and putting together electronics in sweatshops. China was goading the United States, saying: 'This is the dirty work we do for you – are you sure you want to do it instead?' But the latest provocation, which has gone largely unnoticed, cuts deeper. China is questioning whether the West has what it takes to sustain an advanced technological society in the long-term. It has 'strategic stamina' and claims we do not. The occasion of this dig was a relatively minor nuclear announcement. China has created a small, experimental thorium molten salt reactor (MSR), and claimed a world first in being able to refuel it without shutting it down. Thorium reactors are a road not taken, an alternative to designs based on the uranium fuel cycle that the West adopted. For once, Chinese engineers and scientists didn't steal intellectual property but used declassified US documents on projects that the West had abandoned and developed them. China's new reactor builds on work abandoned by the United States as recently as 2018. Thorium, a radioactive metal named after the Norse god Thor, has some merits. It's much more abundant than uranium and can act as a fuel as well as a coolant. It destroys waste as it goes along, so has long been touted as a safer option for smaller countries that want to adopt nuclear energy. However, thorium fuel cycle designs were less efficient than ones using uranium and plutonium and thorium projects were mothballed. The decision was not uncontroversial. As Edward Teller, the father of the hydrogen bomb, wrote in his final published paper in 2003 at the age of 94, this was a 'mistake': molten salt reactor development should have 'kept going as a backup option'. After that, interest in thorium molten salt designs briefly flickered into life once again – there was even an all-party parliamentary group on thorium energy at Westminster. However, the movement waned once again. The group last met a decade ago. Now for the trolling. Xu Hongjie, of the CAS Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics and a 70-year-old veteran of nuclear engineering, is the man behind China's new thorium breakthrough. Announcing the achievement, he couldn't resist contrasting the persistence of his engineers to his counterparts, and the policy elites, in the fickle West. 'The US left its research publicly available, waiting for the right successor. We were that successor,' he told China's state-owned Guangming Daily. Taking a very long-term view is something China prides itself on. We like to attribute this trait to them, too. For example, the comment by late premier Zhou Enlai that it was 'too early to tell' if the French Revolution had been a success has long been trotted out as an example of the Middle Kingdom's far-reaching view. But it turns out not to be true. The comment, made in the 1970s, was actually about the 1968 unrest in Paris, not the French Revolution. But the misattribution belies a deeper truth. In case there was any ambiguity, Mr Xu made it clear. In nuclear energy, he says, 'rabbits sometimes make mistakes or grow lazy. That's when the tortoise seizes its chance ... You need to have strategic stamina, focusing on doing just one thing for 20, 30 years'. Ouch. This hurts, because we know it's true: we have no 'strategic stamina'. 'China likes to rattle us about its technological advances, but it's right about strategic stamina,' says one nuclear industry source. A little caution is needed before declaring that we're falling behind in a nuclear race, and a 'race' is not always the best metaphor in any case (it certainly isn't with artificial intelligence). Molten salt reactors still represent a formidable technical challenge: their Achilles' heel is the presence of salt, which as any boat owner knows, brings big trouble. Problems are only magnified in a radioactive high-temperature environment, where the fluorine created in the process 'unleashes a persistent chemical assault' that 'renders typical alloys like stainless steels defenceless,' as one chemical engineer vividly explains. China's tiny 2 megawatt demonstration unit is very far away from a commercial product, much smaller even than the reactor used in a nuclear submarine. The real nuclear story is one it learnt from France: build a lot of reactors quickly. China has 58 operational reactors, 30 more gigawatt-scale reactors are under construction, and it approved another 10 last week. Meanwhile, we agonise over building half a dozen small ones, and bury our plutonium stockpile to appease the climate gods. 'Keep ordering new units and the costs come down,' says the insider. France has proved that works. But Xu is articulating something much bigger: a civilisational challenge. 'We should worry. Contrary to the fashionable view, humans are defined not so much by their communications or psychology, but by what they produce. No pyramids, no Egyptian civilisation,' says James Woudhuysen, visiting professor of forecasting and innovation at London South Bank University. Civilisations fail for all kinds of reasons but one is that they stop taking the important things seriously. Our own policy elites fixate on speculative issues rather than resilience and energy security. Policy experts obsess over small supply-side tweaks and hacks that bring marginal gains, rather than the big picture. The people who have scientific and technical backgrounds are almost completely absent in Whitehall or the policy think tanks of SW1. The engineering-led innovation in the kind of deep technology that can sustain a prosperous society is being neglected. China's latest trolling is just adding insult to injury – the injury that we know we've inflicted on ourselves. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
05-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
China is laughing at the West's lack of ‘stamina'. It has a point
China has turned up the trolling. When Donald Trump announced his April 2 'liberation day' tariffs singling out China, Communist Party propagandists responded with AI-generated movie clips of the US president and JD Vance, his vice-president, wearily stitching hats and putting together electronics in sweatshops. China was goading the United States, saying: 'This is the dirty work we do for you – are you sure you want to do it instead?' But the latest provocation, which has gone largely unnoticed, cuts deeper. China is questioning whether the West has what it takes to sustain an advanced technological society in the long-term. It has 'strategic stamina' and claims we do not. The occasion of this dig was a relatively minor nuclear announcement. China has created a small, experimental thorium molten salt reactor (MSR), and claimed a world first in being able to refuel it without shutting it down. Thorium reactors are a road not taken, an alternative to designs based on the uranium fuel cycle that the West adopted. For once, Chinese engineers and scientists didn't steal intellectual property but used declassified US documents on projects that the West had abandoned and developed them. China's new reactor builds on work abandoned by the United States as recently as 2018. Thorium, a radioactive metal named after the Norse god Thor, has some merits. It's much more abundant than uranium and can act as a fuel as well as a coolant. It destroys waste as it goes along, so has long been touted as a safer option for smaller countries that want to adopt nuclear energy. However, thorium fuel cycle designs were less efficient than ones using uranium and plutonium and thorium projects were mothballed. The decision was not uncontroversial. As Edward Teller, the father of the hydrogen bomb, wrote in his final published paper in 2003 at the age of 94, this was a 'mistake': molten salt reactor development should have 'kept going as a backup option'. After that, interest in thorium molten salt designs briefly flickered into life once again – there was even an all-party parliamentary group on thorium energy at Westminster. However, the movement waned once again. The group last met a decade ago. Now for the trolling. Xu Hongjie, of the CAS Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics and a 70-year-old veteran of nuclear engineering, is the man behind China's new thorium breakthrough. Announcing the achievement, he couldn't resist contrasting the persistence of his engineers to his counterparts, and the policy elites, in the fickle West. 'The US left its research publicly available, waiting for the right successor. We were that successor,' he told China's state-owned Guangming Daily. Taking a very long-term view is something China prides itself on. We like to attribute this trait to them, too. For example, the comment by late premier Zhou Enlai that it was 'too early to tell' if the French Revolution had been a success has long been trotted out as an example of the Middle Kingdom's far-reaching view. But it turns out not to be true. The comment, made in the 1970s, was actually about the 1968 unrest in Paris, not the French Revolution. But the misattribution belies a deeper truth. In case there was any ambiguity, Mr Xu made it clear. In nuclear energy, he says, 'rabbits sometimes make mistakes or grow lazy. That's when the tortoise seizes its chance ... You need to have strategic stamina, focusing on doing just one thing for 20, 30 years'. Ouch. This hurts, because we know it's true: we have no 'strategic stamina'. 'China likes to rattle us about its technological advances, but it's right about strategic stamina,' says one nuclear industry source. A little caution is needed before declaring that we're falling behind in a nuclear race, and a 'race' is not always the best metaphor in any case (it certainly isn't with artificial intelligence). Molten salt reactors still represent a formidable technical challenge: their Achilles' heel is the presence of salt, which as any boat owner knows, brings big trouble. Problems are only magnified in a radioactive high-temperature environment, where the fluorine created in the process 'unleashes a persistent chemical assault' that 'renders typical alloys like stainless steels defenceless,' as one chemical engineer vividly explains. China's tiny 2 megawatt demonstration unit is very far away from a commercial product, much smaller even than the reactor used in a nuclear submarine. The real nuclear story is one it learnt from France: build a lot of reactors quickly. China has 58 operational reactors, 30 more gigawatt-scale reactors are under construction, and it approved another 10 last week. Meanwhile, we agonise over building half a dozen small ones, and bury our plutonium stockpile to appease the climate gods. 'Keep ordering new units and the costs come down,' says the insider. France has proved that works. But Xu is articulating something much bigger: a civilisational challenge. 'We should worry. Contrary to the fashionable view, humans are defined not so much by their communications or psychology, but by what they produce. No pyramids, no Egyptian civilisation,' says James Woudhuysen, visiting professor of forecasting and innovation at London South Bank University. Civilisations fail for all kinds of reasons but one is that they stop taking the important things seriously. Our own policy elites fixate on speculative issues rather than resilience and energy security. Policy experts obsess over small supply-side tweaks and hacks that bring marginal gains, rather than the big picture. The people who have scientific and technical backgrounds are almost completely absent in Whitehall or the policy think tanks of SW1. The engineering-led innovation in the kind of deep technology that can sustain a prosperous society is being neglected. China's latest trolling is just adding insult to injury – the injury that we know we've inflicted on ourselves.
Daily Mail
30-04-2025
- Science
- Daily Mail
Nuclear breakthrough: China's experimental reactor refuels WITHOUT shutting down - taking the world closer towards limitless clean energy
In the quest to safely generate limitless clean energy, China has just taken a giant step closer. Scientists in Gansu province in the country's west have achieved the milestone of reloading fuel to an operational nuclear fission reactor while it was running. The achievement shows fission reactors can run and be refueled continuously – potentially offering a constant source of power generation. Drawing upon declassified US research, Chinese engineers began constructing the experimental machine – a thorium molten salt reactor (MSR) – back in 2018. Thorium MSRs are a type of advanced nuclear technology that use liquid fuels, typically molten salts, as both a fuel and a coolant – and are generally safer than existing fission reactors which use uranium. It marks the first long-term, stable operation of the technology, reports South China Morning Post (SCMP), citing Chinese communist party newspaper Guangming Daily. Xu Hongjie, the project's chief scientist, said China 'now leads the global frontier' in the energy revolution, following decades of intensive research. Xu said: 'The US left its research publicly available, waiting for the right successor. We were that successor.' The world-first was announced by Mr Xu during a meeting at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing on April 8. In a cheeky dig, Xu referred to America's research into molten salt reactors in the 1960s and 1970s, eventually abandoned in favour of uranium-based systems. 'In the nuclear game, there are no quick wins,' he was quoted as saying. 'You need to have strategic stamina, focusing on doing just one thing for 20, 30 years.' In reference to Aesop's famous fable, he said: 'Rabbits sometimes make mistakes or grow lazy. That's when the tortoise seizes its chance.' His team at the CAS Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics spent years dissecting declassified American documents and bettering their experiments, SCMP reports. 'We mastered every technique in the literature – then pushed further,' Xu added. This experimental reactor is hidden away in the Gobi Desert city of Wuwei in Gansu province and can generate two megawatts (2MW) of energy – enough to power 2,000 households. Only reaching full-power operation in June last year, it is the only operational thorium reactor in the world. What is thorium? Thorium is a naturally-occurring, slightly radioactive metal discovered in 1828 by Swedish chemist Jons Jakob Berzelius. More abundant in nature than uranium, thorium can be used as a fuel source for nuclear energy, but not directly. Thorium itself is not a nuclear fuel, although it can be used to create such a fuel (in conjunction with a fissile material such as recycled plutonium). But a much bigger thorium molten salt reactor now being built is set to achieve its first sustained nuclear chain reaction by 2030. Estimated to be 500 times more abundant than the uranium-232 used in conventional nuclear reactors, thorium has been hailed as a potential solution to the demand for nuclear power. Nuclear reactors already in operation around the world create energy by forcing radioactive elements to undergo a process called fission. During this process, the element breaks down into smaller, more stable elements and releases heat which can be used to drive steam turbines, in turn producing electricity. Thorium on its own is not fissile, meaning it cannot be used for fission, but it can provide the basis for a fission reaction. This is because thorium is 'fertile', meaning it can transmute into uranium-233 (U-233) when bombarded with neutrons. In a molten-salt reactor, thorium is mixed with a chemical called lithium fluoride and heated to about 1400°C (2550°F). This mixture is then bombarded with neutrons until some of the thorium starts to transform into uranium-232, which then decays in a fission reaction. Nuclear fusion vs. nuclear fission Nuclear fusion and fission are nuclear processes; they involve nuclear forces to change the nucleus of atoms. Fusion joins two light elements (low atomic mass number), forming a heavier element. For fusion to occur, hydrogen atoms are put under high heat & pressure so they fuse together. Meanwhile, fission splits a heavy element (with a high atomic mass number) into fragments. In both cases, energy is freed because mass of the remaining nucleus is smaller than mass of reacting nuclei. Both reactions release energy which, in a power plant, can boil water to drive a steam generator, making electricity. Source: International Atomic Energy Agency As it decays, this uranium then produces more neutrons which convert additional thorium into fuel. In theory, this reactor design could turn the extremely abundant element into a nearly limitless source of power. Molten-salt reactors also produce significantly less nuclear waste and remove the risk of dangerous nuclear meltdown by keeping the levels of fissile material relatively low. What's more, China has a thorium source that could supply enough fuel to power the country for 60,000 years, geologists in Beijing have claimed. The Bayan Obo mining complex in Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of northern China, could contain enough thorium to supply China's household energy demands 'almost forever', a national survey reportedly found. It identified 233 thorium-rich zones across the country and, if accurate, suggests that thorium reserves in China significantly exceed previous estimates. The Wuwei experimental reactor is different from the 'Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak' (EAST), a fusion reactor located in Hefei in Anhui province. Known as China's artificial sun, it set the record for running for as hot and as long as possible – for 1,066 seconds at 180million°F (100million°C) – seven times hotter than the sun's core. EAST could be a precursor to the first ever fusion power plants that supply power directly to the grid and electricity to people's homes. These power plants could reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the power-generation sector by diverting away from the use of fossil fuels like coal and gas. Meanwhile, the SPARC nuclear fusion reactor, a US project involving MIT, is currently in development in Devens, Massachusetts and scheduled to start operations in 2026. South Korea also has its own 'artificial sun', the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR), which has run at 180million°F (100million°C) for 48 seconds. And Japan's reactor, called JT-60SA and switched on in Naka north of Tokyo late 2023, is a six-storey-high machine measuring 50 feet high and 44 feet wide. Built and operated jointly by Europe and Japan, JT-60SA will be the world's largest fusion reactor until the completion of the the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in France, set to begin delivering power in 2035. How could thorium be used to produce limitless energy? Thorium is a relatively abundant, slightly radioactive element which is commonly produced as a byproduct of mining rare-earth metals. On its own, thorium isn't fissile, which means it doesn't decay into any other isotopes. That means it can't be used in a standard nuclear reactor like uranium-232. However, thorium could be used to make a new type of reactor called a molten-salt reactor. Thorium is 'fertile', which means that an atom of thorium can be transformed into an atom of uranium-232 when it is bombarded with neutrons. In a molten-salt reactor, thorium is dissolved in hot liquid salt and used to 'breed' uranium which then undergoes fission to produce heat. This liquid is then circulated through a heat exchange to remove excess energy and fission materials, leaving behind the thorium to start the reaction again. Molten-salt reactors have a number of benefits but the main advantage is they can be small, produce little radioactive waste, and avoid the risk of a meltdown.
