Hacker News Reader

Comment by convolvatron | Hacker News Reader

"HH70 has independent intellectual property rights, with a localization rate exceeding 96%."

what...does that mean?

I would guess that it means that 96% of the components come from within China. Self-sufficiency is important in China right now, and it's doubtful that 'localization' refers to just the company itself.

That means when they inevitably appear on sanction list of US government, they won't have to close the shop.

It's a Chinese project.

Though that depends on what the remaining 4% is. Curious about that. (E.g., for an aircraft the engine being local is more important than the seats being made locally.)

If I were to speculate, I'd say hitting 96% indicates that 100% is an important target to them. That would imply that the remaining 4% are pretty difficult to replicate "in-house" on a short timeframe (though obviously not impossible given the will and time to do so). All speculation though.

Not relying on licenced IP? 96% in-house? That's my guess but I'm just a dude on HN.

Also, this is kinda like SpaceX getting a Falcon 9 to orbit the first time but in fusion land.

It’s a bit difficult to parse the analogy since you’re comparing something that has never been done (and is a notoriously difficult technology to crack) to something that had been done by many others, many times. But, even so, and despite the lack of specific information about the test/achievement, I have a feeling you’re over selling this by quite a bit. If you want to compare to spacex, I’d say it’s more like the first time they demonstrated that they could control a re-entering booster stage with grid fins—a notable step to booster reuse.

The analogy is apt. Many, many, many fusion reactors have achieved first plasma. This is comparable to a rocket achieving orbit.

This company's ultimate goal is commercial fusion power, which has never been done. SpaceX's goal is landing people on Mars, which has never been done. The milestones being discussed are just stepping stones.

Yeah that makes sense when you explain it like that.

> SpaceX's goal is landing people on Mars, which has never been done

Cheap, frequent flights on reüsable rockets would seem to be space’s commercial fusion power threshold. Colonising Mars is like fusion SMRs at a fraction of solar’s cost.

That chinese -> english machine translation still has some way to go.

Chinese version is here: https://energysingularity.cn/%E6%B4%AA%E8%8D%9270%E6%89%98%E...

No, localization rate is the right translation, you just need to understand the context. They've been on a mad dash to domestically source techonology parts and intellectual property, ever since all the sanctions. Foreign suppliers are seen as unreliable now.

"Localization" in many countries means local supply chain. How regional "local" is depends on context...can mean support local community as in farmers market or give jobs to locals, or in projects like this in the more strategic sense i.e. all of supply chain is in country i.e. chinese.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com