China Issues Opinions on Developing New Quality Productive Forces, Calls for Orderly Development of Advanced Nuclear Fission Energy

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On October 9, the Opinions on Developing New Quality Productive Forces issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council was officially released. In the chapter "Actively Advancing the Energy Revolution," it proposes focusing on the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals and pursuing the orderly development of advanced nuclear fission energy. The document also calls for building a high-share renewable energy power system, improving policies and measures for renewable energy consumption and regulation, and organizing demonstrations and promotion of major application scenarios.

The Opinions incorporate advanced nuclear fission energy into energy revolution-related arrangements, proposing to advance the revolution in energy consumption, supply, technology, and institutions, and to strengthen international cooperation in the energy sector. The document also requires deploying scientific and technological tasks as needed in major national engineering projects, and improving the demand-oriented topic selection system, the management system with consistent responsibilities, rights, and interests, and the application-oriented evaluation system. This policy does not separately specify the number of newly approved nuclear power projects, the construction scale of specific reactor types, or an implementation timetable.

According to the China Nuclear Power Development Report (2026) released by the National Energy Administration on August 6, as of the end of 2025, mainland China had a total of 112 nuclear power units in operation and approved for construction, with a total scale of 125 million kilowatts. Among them, 59 units were in operation with an installed capacity of 62.48 million kilowatts; 53 units were approved for construction with a capacity of 62.93 million kilowatts. In 2025, national nuclear power generation reached 485.2 billion kilowatt-hours, a year-on-year increase of 7.6%, accounting for 4.6% of the country's total power generation; the average utilization hours of nuclear power units were 7,809 hours, an increase of 126 hours year-on-year.

In terms of the application of advanced nuclear fission technologies, a total of 4 "Hualong One" third-generation pressurized water reactor units at Fujian Fuqing and Guangxi Fangchenggang have been completed and put into operation, the "Guohe One" demonstration project has been fully completed, and the Shandong Shidaowan high-temperature gas-cooled reactor demonstration project has been put into commercial operation. The "Linglong One" multi-purpose small modular reactor demonstration project in Changjiang, Hainan is under construction, and new-generation nuclear fission technologies such as sodium-cooled fast reactors continue to advance research and development and engineering verification.

In terms of nuclear power investment, the 5 nuclear power projects newly approved in 2025 attracted a total of 10 private enterprises to take equity stakes, with the highest shareholding ratio of private enterprises reaching 20%. On July 31, 2026, the State Council executive meeting decided to approve a total of 4 nuclear power projects and 8 units, namely Liaoning Zhuanghe Phase I, Shandong Laiyang Phase I, Zhejiang Jinqimen Phase II, and Guangdong Taipingling Phase III, which are the first batch of nuclear power projects approved during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period. Among them, 6 units adopt "Hualong One" technology, and the 2 units of Shandong Laiyang Phase I adopt "Guohe One" technology. Zhejiang Jinqimen Phase II and Guangdong Taipingling Phase III have been designated as demonstration projects for "Hualong One" Version 2.0.