A new generation of artificial sun "China Circulation No. 3" Xinhua News Agency

On March 3, the concept of controllable nuclear fusion fluctuated and rose, with China Nuclear Construction (601611), Lianchuang Optoelectronics (600363), Yongding (600105), Heduan Intelligent (603011) and other shares up the limit, Guoguang Electric (688776) closed up 13.77%, Hailu Heavy Industry (002255), Western Superconductor (688122) and other stocks rose more than 5%.

The surging news noticed that the domestic controllable nuclear fusion alliance once again sounded the rallying cry, which catalyzed the market situation. China Nuclear Power (601985) and Zhejiang Power (600023) announced on the evening of February 28 that they would increase their capital and invest in China Fusion Energy Co., Ltd., marking a big step forward for this controllable nuclear fusion specialized company from physical operation.

China Nuclear Power said that in order to lay the foundation for the commercial application of fusion reactors in the future, it plans to participate in the fusion company by way of capital increase. The investment amount is 1 billion yuan, and the transaction is subject to the approval of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council and the procedures for industrial and commercial change registration. As the approval of the superior is still required, the final investment amount and the proportion of shares obtained in this outbound investment shall be subject to the investment agreement signed and effective, and the relevant parties to the transaction shall respectively perform the necessary internal and external decision-making and approval procedures, and be approved and filed by the superior ministries and commissions.

At the same time, Zheneng Power increased its capital and invested in China Fusion Energy Co., Ltd., with an amount of about 750 million yuan.

On December 29 last year, the controllable nuclear fusion innovation consortium led by China National Nuclear Corporation and composed of 24 central enterprises, scientific research institutes and universities was announced in Chengdu, Sichuan, and China Fusion Energy Co., Ltd. (in preparation) was officially unveiled. By the end of last year, the number of members of the consortium had increased to 33.

CNNC is the controlling shareholder of China Nuclear Power, and the controlling shareholder of Zhejiang Energy Power is Zhejiang Energy Group Co., Ltd. As one of the provincial local energy enterprises with the largest installed capacity and the largest asset scale in China, Zheneng Power is a deep participant in the domestic nuclear power industry, participating in China Nuclear Power and Qinshan Nuclear Power, Qinshan Joint Venture, Qinshan Third Nuclear Power, Sanmen Nuclear Power, CNNC Liaoning Nuclear Power, CNNC Marine Nuclear Power, CGN Cangnan Nuclear Power, State Nuclear Zhejiang Energy and other nuclear power companies.

Controlled nuclear fusion is seen as the "ultimate energy solution", and deuterium-tritium fusion is currently considered the most likely. The "fuels" used are deuterium and tritium, which can be extracted directly from seawater, and tritium can be produced by the reaction of deuterium and lithium. It is estimated that there is enough deuterium in the Earth's seawater to last tens of billions of years.

In the field of fusion, China has built a number of nuclear fusion research devices such as China Circulator 1, China Circulator 2, China Circulator 3, and Dongfang Superring EAST, and the new generation of artificial sun China Circulator 3 has successfully achieved plasma current operation of more than 1.5 megaamperes, and CNNC has also taken the lead in undertaking the core installation project of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project.

When will we be able to use electricity generated by nuclear fusion technology? The prospects are bright, but the reality is daunting. Although the concept of fusion has been heating up in the capital market, there are still some key core technologies for nuclear fusion that need to be overcome for engineering applications.

At the press conference held in Beijing on February 28, Duan Xuru, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and chief scientist of the fusion field of China National Nuclear Corporation, introduced that up to now, China Circulation-3 has made a number of breakthroughs in the field of controlled nuclear fusion. However, China Circulation-3 is still in the experimental research stage, the goal is to verify the feasibility of fusion reactor physics and engineering-related technologies, not yet direct power generation, the core task of China's Circulation-3 is to achieve "fusion ignition", according to China's nuclear energy development strategy, its application is expected to be realized by the middle of this century (about 2050), is expected to enter the demonstration stage around 2045, and is expected to be commercialized around 2050. In the future, it is necessary to break through the bottlenecks of steady-state operation, materials and engineering, and economy.

In an exclusive interview with The Paper before, Duan Xu said that in order to occupy the initiative in the development and application of nuclear fusion energy in the future and realize the application of fusion energy in the middle of this century, in recent years, countries around the world have intensified the "race" in the field of nuclear fusion research, and fusion reactor nuclear engineering and technology has become a new track for international fusion energy research and development.

Over the past half century, many magnetic confinement nuclear fusion routes have been explored, such as pinching, magnetic mirrors, stellarators, spherical marks, and tokamaks. "At present, the industry believes that the technical route of magnetic confinement nuclear fusion is closer to the ultimate goal of achieving commercial fusion power generation. There are still a series of challenges to be overcome at the technical level of inertial nuclear fusion, especially the related technologies of laser drivers, such as the need to improve the conversion efficiency of electrical energy to laser energy, and the development of high-repetition laser drivers. In contrast, he said, the magnetic confinement nuclear fusion represented by the tokamak has become mature, especially its ability to achieve steady-state combustion and continuous energy output, which is more conducive to meeting the needs of energy applications. The launch of the ITER program marks the transition of magnetic confinement fusion research from fusion plasma experiments and operations to the development of fusion reactor nuclear engineering and technology. Duan Xuru further introduced the surging news at that time.

According to The Paper, China's research on controlled nuclear fusion began as early as the fifties of the twentieth century, almost simultaneously with international research. Since participating in the ITER program in 2006, China has undertaken the task of manufacturing important key components of ITER plants. Based on domestic research and making full use of the international cooperation platform built by the ITER project, China's fusion research has developed rapidly, and magnetic confinement nuclear fusion research has entered the parallel stage from the past to the parallel stage, and some technologies have reached the international leading level.