- China is building a 78,000-tonne artificial island to resist nuclear blasts
- The twin-hull platform can support 238 people for four months without supplies
- The island, as large as Fujian aircraft carrier, will be ready by 2028
China is in the process of building a 78,000-tonne artificial island designed to withstand nuclear blasts. It is a mobile, semi-submersible, twin-hull platform that could support 238 people for four months without the need of new supplies.
The infrastructure is as large as China's Fujian aircraft carrier and will be operational in 2028. It can withstand rough seas with 6-9 metre waves and typhoons of category 17, the most powerfully rated tropical cyclones.
"We're racing to complete the design and construction, aiming for operational status by 2028," Lin Zhongqin, an academician leading the project, told Economic Information Daily.
According to a report by the South China Morning Post, scientists say the facility uses "metamaterial" sandwich panels that are capable of turning "catastrophic shocks into gentle squeezes".
"This deep-sea major scientific facility is designed for all-weather, long-term residency," wrote the team led by Professor Yang Deqing with Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU).
"Its superstructure contains critical compartments that ensure emergency power, communications and navigation control – making nuclear blast protection for these spaces absolutely vital," the team said.
Officially called the Deep-Sea All-Weather Resident Floating Research Facility, it is China's "far-sea floating mobile island" that comes after a decade's worth of research and planning.
The island will be 138 metres long and 85 metres wide (125 feet long and 279 feet wide), with a main deck rising 45 metres above the waterline.
Although China describes the platform as a civilian science infrastructure, its design references GJB 1060.1-1991 - a military specification for nuclear blast resistance. It means the structure can handle the worst-case scenario of nuclear attacks.
