Lunar Helium-3 Fusion Reactor LunarFusion Completes Proof of Concept: Helium-3 From Moon Soil Achieves Controlled Fusion on Earth for the First Time

Lunar Helium-3 Fusion Reactor LunarFusion Completes Proof of Concept: Helium-3 From Moon Soil Achieves Controlled Fusion on Earth for the First Time

November 29, 2030, Hefei — China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) and the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science at the Chinese Academy of Sciences jointly announced today that their LunarFusion project successfully achieved controlled fusion using helium-3 extracted from lunar samples. The reaction took place in the EAST superconducting tokamak device, lasting 47 seconds and producing approximately 1.2 megajoules of net energy.

Why Helium-3

The most readily available fusion fuels on Earth are deuterium and tritium. But tritium fusion produces abundant high-energy neutrons, causing radioactive activation of reactor materials. Helium-3 fusion produces protons and helium-4, generating virtually no neutron radiation — meaning reactor materials are not activated and nuclear waste is drastically reduced.

The problem is that Earth has almost no helium-3. However, the lunar regolith is rich in helium-3 — billions of years of solar wind deposited it in the soil. The estimated total helium-3 on the lunar surface is approximately 1.1 million tons, enough to meet humanity's energy needs for thousands of years.

From the Moon to Hefei

The helium-3 used in the LunarFusion project came from the 1,731 grams of lunar samples brought back by China's Chang'e-5 mission. The research team extracted approximately 22 milligrams of helium-3 — a tiny amount, but sufficient for proof-of-concept experiments.

"47 seconds of fusion time and 1.2 megajoules of energy output are engineeringly negligible," acknowledged project chief scientist Academician Li Jiangang, "but the scientific significance is enormous. We've demonstrated that lunar helium-3 can serve as fusion fuel. The next step is solving the problem of large-scale lunar mining and transport."

Technical Challenges

Helium-3 fusion requires an ignition temperature of approximately 600 million degrees Celsius, about 10 times higher than deuterium-tritium fusion. The EAST device can currently maintain this temperature for only seconds, far from the sustained operation needed for commercialization.

The greater bottleneck is the supply chain. Building a 1-gigawatt helium-3 fusion plant would require approximately 25 tons of helium-3 annually. At current technical levels, this would necessitate processing roughly 50 million tons of lunar regolith. Wu Weiren, chief designer of China's lunar exploration program, revealed that the Chang'e-7 and Chang'e-8 missions will carry lunar regolith heating and extraction experimental equipment, with the goal of in-situ helium-3 extraction on the Moon and validation of small-scale sample return to Earth.

International Competition

China's progress triggered international attention. The US Department of Energy announced an additional $400 million in funding to three fusion companies within 24 hours of the news, with one (Helion Energy) explicitly listing helium-3 fusion as a priority. Russia's Roscosmos also stated it would initiate lunar helium-3 resource exploration missions by 2032.

"Fusion energy is not something any country can achieve alone," Li Jiangang said. "We are willing to share LunarFusion data with international partners, but the development rights for lunar resources need to be negotiated under a United Nations framework."