AI energy demand accelerates China’s quest for nuclear fusion

{"text":[[{"start":7.36,"text":"The boom in energy-hungry AI data centres is accelerating Chinese research into nuclear power as the country races to build a new generation of reactors."}],[{"start":17.14,"text":"Of 58 new conventional nuclear plants being built around the world, more than half are in China. The country is investing heavily in an emerging class of small modular reactors (SMRs) while pouring research and development efforts into the so-called holy grail of energy: nuclear fusion."}],[{"start":34.36,"text":"With cost and environmental fears stalling nuclear development across much of the world, China’s competitiveness gives it a chance to dominate another industry of the future."}],[{"start":44.24,"text":"The emerging importance of the nuclear industry in the AI race comes during a tense period of US-China relations, including sweeping controls of American technology sales to China."}],[{"start":55.12,"text":"AI is expected to be among the key points of friction when Xi Jinping meets Donald Trump in Washington this week."}],[{"start":62.44,"text":"While China remains reliant on US-designed AI computer chips, the centrally planned nature of the Chinese economy and lack of democratic checks are viewed as giving Beijing advantages in building the energy and infrastructure systems needed for AI."}],[{"start":75.72,"text":"China will have the “world’s most dynamic and significant nuclear industry” over the next decade “by a wide margin”, said Damien Ma, a non-resident expert with Beijing-based research group Gavekal."}],[{"start":88,"text":"A sustained build-out in the US faces tight capital intensity and regulatory hurdles, he added, while China aims to strengthen its “already formidable supply-chain self-sufficiency, convert domestic prowess into an export industry and reach the clean-energy holy grail of fusion power”."}],[{"start":104.24,"text":"China’s electricity demand is hitting record levels as a manufacturing and export boom offsets slowing growth in other parts of the economy. Beijing is under immense pressure to rapidly expand its electricity grid to meet rising demand and utilise huge amounts of wind and solar capacity already built in the country’s vast interior."}],[{"start":123.2,"text":"China’s data centres will quadruple their electricity consumption to 774 terawatt hours by 2030, according to forecasts by consultancy Wood Mackenzie that point to rapid growth in AI workloads driving a structural increase in computing-related power demand."}],[{"start":139.52,"text":"Beyond supporting the AI boom, nuclear power is in line with Beijing’s drive for energy security, technological leadership and new export-focused manufacturing industries, as well as leader Xi Jinping’s goals of peak carbon emissions in 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":158.12,"text":"While conventional reactors are dominated by state-owned groups in China, private companies, often with links to state funds and research groups, are trying to unlock new nuclear technologies."}],[{"start":169.32,"text":"“The big opportunity is this: there’s an electricity supply gap because of AI,” said an executive with Junhe Atomic, a Shanghai-based developer of SMRs, who asked not to be named."}],[{"start":181.12,"text":"Junhe was founded in 2025 by Tian Jiashu, who previously served as deputy chief engineer of two of China’s biggest state nuclear groups, China National Nuclear Corporation and China General Nuclear Power Corporation."}],[{"start":195.48,"text":"Junhe has raised Rmb300mn ($44.1mn) in venture funding, including backing from tech investor Neil Shen’s HongShan Capital, formerly Sequoia China. It is now in the design phase for its first demonstration SMR."}],[{"start":211.76,"text":"The executive, who previously studied and worked in the US, said while there were still engineering “problems” to be solved across structural components, modularisation and engineering-process efficiency, Junhe aimed to have its demonstration project operational by around 2031."}],[{"start":227.28,"text":"A fleet of smaller reactors could be placed at sites used by China’s ageing coal-power plants, said the executive."}],[{"start":234.2,"text":"“Since thermal power is a declining technology and will definitely be replaced one day, what happens to all this thermal power equipment? What happens to thermal power sites? What happens to the workers?”"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":246.24,"text":"Meanwhile, on Shanghai’s eastern outskirts, scientists and engineers at NovaFusionX are trying to crack nuclear fusion, a technology in which the potential is as high as the practical hurdles."}],[{"start":257.72,"text":"Led by scientist founder Guo Houyang, NovaFusionX is developing a “field-reversed configuration” (FRC), a kind of magnetic plasma containment. Helion Energy, a US fusion start-up backed by OpenAI’s Sam Altman, is following broadly the same approach."}],[{"start":273.76,"text":"“We believe this represents the most promising pathway to achieve fusion at low cost, and to satisfy the fast-growing electricity demand from AI data centres,” Guo told the FT."}],[{"start":282.48,"text":"Guo previously served as experimental leader for the US energy department’s largest FRC research programme at the University of Washington and later as chief experimental strategist and head of the experimental department at TAE Technologies, a US fusion developer."}],[{"start":299.04,"text":"His early research laid important groundwork that later informed Helion’s technical approach, he said."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":305.12,"text":"Guo said Helion’s announcement in February of fusion and a plasma temperature of 150mn degrees Celsius had “fully confirmed the scientific soundness, feasibility and commercialisation potential of this pathway”."}],[{"start":319.36,"text":"NovaFusionX aims to achieve “first plasma” by the end of this year. By 2029, it hopes to deliver a “net energy gain”, where the energy output is greater than the input needed to sustain the reaction, a crucial step on the path to commercialisation."}],[{"start":335.08,"text":"Guo said the company was in talks with local governments across China to locate NovaFusionX’s first demonstration reactor, which it hopes to build in the early 2030s at a cost of about Rmb3bn ($440mn). The company has attracted Rmb2.4bn ($360mn) from investors and has a valuation of more than Rmb10bn ($1.5bn)."}],[{"start":361.16,"text":"According to research from the Special Competitive Studies Project, a US think-tank, China has mobilised roughly three times as much investment into “commercialisation-relevant” fusion projects similar to those under the US energy department."}],[{"start":374.74,"text":"Nuclear fusion is one of eight targeted technology areas in the Chinese Communist Party’s latest five-year economic development plan."}],[{"start":382.16,"text":"Both Guo and the Junhe executive said they were helped by strong financial backing from state and private investors, support from China’s academic institutions and the country’s deep supply chain for high-tech manufacturing."}],[{"start":394.06,"text":"Speaking at a conference in Beijing in April, Zheng Mingguang, chief designer at the State Power Investment Corporation, said much effort was still needed to develop new materials to support the nuclear industry."}],[{"start":404.4,"text":"However, he touted China’s chances of success."}],[{"start":407.32,"text":"“We have the strongest design teams, R&D teams and testing facilities. We have the strongest and most complete industrial chain, and we have the best talent pool,” he said. “By contrast, not a single foreign country has a complete industrial chain.”"}],[{"start":407.82,"text":"Graphic by Ian Bott"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":427.72,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1790118274_3600.mp3"}