China is building a giant laser facility to master near-limitless clean energy, satellite images appear to show <br><a href="https://v2-renzo-protocol.com/">renzo protocol</a><br><br><br>Images from space reveal an enormous X-shaped building rising up from rocky terrain in southwestern China. This is a huge nuclear fusion research facility, analysts say, and it could be a sign China is leaping ahead in the quest to harness this futuristic energy source.<br><br>It could also mean they are amping up nuclear weapons development.<br><br>Decker Eveleth, an analyst at US-based research organization the CNA Corporation, has been among those watching this facility for years. In 2020, a US official released images purporting to show various potential Chinese nuclear locations, including the site near Mianyang in Sichuan province.<br><br>At this point, it was basically “a patch of dirt,” Eveleth told CNN. But after Covid shutdowns were lifted, construction accelerated. The project is described as a “laser fusion” facility in contract documents obtained by Eveleth and seen by CNN.<br><br>If the facility is indeed a laser facility, it will offer a unique way of studying materials in extreme conditions. It allows scientists to create “pressures that are typically found in the center of stars or in nuclear weapons,” said Brian Appelbe, a research fellow from the Centre for Inertial Fusion Studies at Imperial College London.<br><br>Eveleth says the four giant arms shown in the satellite image are “bays” which will be able to shoot lasers at the tall, central tower, which houses a target chamber containing hydrogen isotopes. The laser energy fuses the hydrogen together to create a burst of energy in a process called ignition.<br><br>Nuclear fusion offers the tantalizing prospect of abundant, clean energy without the long-lived radioactive waste problem of nuclear fission, the world’s current nuclear energy technology. Countries and companies across the world are in a race to master it.<br>