Transferred from: Prospective Industry Research Institute

Major listed companies in the industry: Antai Technology (000969.SZ), China General Nuclear Power (003816.SZ), Yongding (600105.SH), Western Superconductor (688122.SH), Shanghai Electric (601727.SH), etc

The core data of this paper: the number of nuclear fusion devices in the world; Global nuclear fusion device market share; Comparison of nuclear fusion device technologies

1. Controlled nuclear fusion technology is mainly divided into two categories: magnetic confinement fusion and inertial confinement fusion

Controlled fusion technology is one of the cutting-edge research directions in the world's energy field today, aiming to achieve a clean, efficient and almost unlimited energy supply by simulating nuclear fusion reactions in the interior of the sun. Controlled nuclear fusion technology refers to the technology that allows light atomic nuclei to merge into heavier nuclei despite charge repulsion under artificially controlled conditions, and releases huge amounts of energy in the process. This process requires extremely high temperatures and pressures to allow the thermal movement of the nuclei to be high enough to increase the probability of a fusion reaction. In controlled nuclear fusion, the most commonly used fuels are deuterium and tritium, which undergo fusion reactions at high temperatures and pressures to produce helium nuclei and neutrons while releasing large amounts of energy.

Controlled nuclear fusion techniques are mainly divided into two main categories: magnetic confinement fusion and inertial confinement fusion.

Magnetic confinement fusion uses a strong magnetic field to confine a high-temperature plasma so that it can sustain the fusion reaction without coming into contact with the reactor walls. The key to this technique is how to generate and maintain a magnetic field of sufficient strength and stability, and how to control the temperature, density, and purity of the plasma. The generation and maintenance of high-temperature plasma lies in heating the plasma to a high temperature of millions or even hundreds of millions of degrees through ohmic heating, neutral particle beam heating and wave heating, and maintaining this high-temperature state under the constraints of the magnetic field. There are three main types of magnetic confinement fusion devices: magnetic mirrors, stellarators and tokamaks.

Inertial confinement fusion is a method that uses the inertial action of particles to constrain the particles themselves, so as to achieve nuclear fusion reactions. The basic idea is to use the energy provided by the driver to form plasma with nuclear fusion fuel (deuterium, tritium) in the target pellet, and in a very short time when these plasma particles have not had time to fly around due to their own inertia, they are compressed to a high-temperature, high-density state through centripetal explosion, so that a nuclear fusion reaction occurs. Because this kind of nuclear fusion is achieved by the inertial confinement action of the plasma particles themselves, it is called inertial confinement fusion. Inertial confinement fusion devices mainly include laser nuclear fusion devices and Z-constriction nuclear fusion devices.

2. Magnetic confinement technology is the mainstream controllable nuclear fusion technology route, and alternative technology routes such as stellarizers have grown rapidly in recent years

According to the

statistics of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Fusion Device Information System (FUSDIS) on March 25, 2025, a total of 28 countries or institutions around the world are currently designing, building and operating tokamaks, involving a total of 167 devices, including 80 tokamaks, 28 stellarators, 13 laser/inertial confinement, and 46 other routes. Overall, tokamaks are still the mainstream, accounting for nearly half of fusion devices, but stellarics, laser confinement, and other alternative technology routes are also growing rapidly.

In February 2025, according to the CMl database and Coherent Market Insights statistical analysis, in terms of technology, magnetic confinement holds the highest market share due to its effectiveness and potential for sustainable energy production In terms of technology, magnetic confinement has a market share of 62.4% due to its effectiveness and potential for sustainable energy production. Startups are also looking for more innovative magnetic confinement concepts, such as compact toroids and stellarators, to reduce construction and operating costs. With its proven capabilities and significant resources committed to continuous progress, magnetic confinement is at the top of the list of potential solutions to global energy demand and climate change mitigation in the long term.

3. With the continuous breakthrough of information computing technology, the research of stellarizers is getting more and more popular

Due to the relatively simple structure, high technical maturity and superior high-temperature performance, the tokamak device is most widely used in the field of nuclear fusion research. However, it also carries the risk of relying on plasma current, high rupture hazards, and the complexity and cost of the project will increase significantly as the scale increases.

In recent years, the research on stellarroders has become more and more popular. In the past, due to the complexity of product design, the research progress of stellarumers was relatively slow. However, in recent years, with the continuous breakthrough of information computing technology and the increasing level of engineering design, stellarroders have attracted much attention from academia and industry due to their natural steady-state operation without relying on plasma current, flexible magnetic field design, and better heat flow control.

Laser fusion device is an early fusion technology, but its practical application is relatively rare due to its high energy consumption, complex target manufacturing and difficult repeated operation. However, laser fusion devices are of great value in basic research, and the country can use its research and development to further explore laser weapon technology, so it still has some research potential in the future.

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