中国可能很快就会启动“人造太阳”聚变反应堆

In March, Chinese researchers predicted that the nation's HL-2M tokamak - a device designed to replicate nuclear fusion, the same reaction that powers the Sun - would be built before the end of 2019.

今年3月，中国研究人员预测，中国的HL-2M托卡马克将在2019年底前建成。托卡马克是一种旨在复制核聚变反应的装置，与太阳的核聚变反应相同。

If scientists can figure out how to harness the power produced by nuclear fusion, it could provide a near-limitless source of clean energy.

如果科学家们能弄清楚如何利用核聚变产生的能量，就能提供近乎无限的清洁能源。

For decades, that's made fusion power a holy grail for energy researchers.

几十年来，这使得聚变能成为能源研究人员的圣杯。

But the problem is that they've yet to figure out a cost-effective way to keep extremely hot plasma confined and stable long enough for fusion to take place.

但问题是，他们还没有找到一种经济有效的方法来保持极热等离子体的限制和足够长的稳定时间来进行聚变反应。

China's HL-2M tokamak might be the device that's finally up to that challenge - or at least yields the clues needed to overcome it.

中国的HL-2M托卡马克可能是最终能够应对这一挑战的设备——或者至少提供了克服这一挑战所需的线索。