Institutions: The process of commercializing nuclear fusion has entered a period of intensive catalysis.
On May 23, the A-share Controlled Nuclear Fusion Sector experienced a surge. As of the time of reporting, HaHan Huadong was capped at a limit up of 20CM, Chenguang Medical rose over 18%, Fujian Snowman and RongFa Nuclear Equipment reached the limit up, while Zhongzhou Special Materials, Icosbio, Guoguang Electric, Hefei Metalforming Intelligent Manufacturing, among others, also increased.
At the same time, the Hong Kong stock market's nuclear power and nuclear energy sectors also strengthened. As of the time of reporting, CGN MINING surged more than 7%, with CGN POWER and CGN NEW ENERGY also rising.
Today, the nuclear power-related sectors in the Hong Kong and A-share markets strengthened, partly due to the fluctuations in the U.S. stock market's nuclear energy sector. According to external reports, U.S. President Trump is set to sign an executive order on Friday (23rd), aimed at streamlining the approval and regulatory processes for new nuclear reactors and strengthening the fuel supply chain system to promote the development of the U.S. nuclear energy industry.
Stimulated by this bullish news, the U.S. nuclear energy sector saw a collective surge in after-hours trading, with Lightbridge rising over 23% and NuScale Power nearing an 18% increase. Industry insiders point out that, from historical experience, the wild swings in the U.S. market often have a significant mapping effect on the domestic nuclear power sector.
Policy promotion combined with technological breakthroughs.
Nuclear energy is a technology that releases energy through nuclear reactions. It mainly consists of three forms: nuclear fission, nuclear fusion, and nuclear decay, among which nuclear fusion involves the combination of light atomic nuclei into heavier atomic nuclei to release energy, and is viewed as a core direction for future energy development.
Its significant advantage lies in its extremely high energy density, as the energy released from a unit mass of fuel far exceeds that of fossil fuels, with minimal fuel consumption and low operating costs. More crucially, the running process produces almost no greenhouse gases, which is of great significance for alleviating global climate change.
As the world economy grows, global energy demand continues to rise, whereas the supply of traditional fossil fuels is becoming increasingly scarce. Their extraction and use have caused serious environmental pollution, exacerbating global warming and acid rain issues. Therefore, clean energy has become an inevitable choice for future energy development.
Against this backdrop, countries around the world are accelerating their clean energy layout, with nuclear energy being an important direction that holds great expectations. The United States has proposed a plan for the commercial deployment of advanced nuclear energy by 2030, aiming to build 0.2 billion kilowatts of nuclear power by 2050; France has announced the construction of 6 to 14 new reactors; and Russia plans to establish 29 nuclear power units by 2045, at which point nuclear power will account for 25%.
China is also actively implementing policies to promote the development of the nuclear energy industry. On May 21, the National Energy Administration announced that it has decided to establish an expert committee for the quota of nuclear power engineering, with its secretariat located at the China National Nuclear Power Development Center. The main responsibility of the expert committee is to conduct technical reviews of nuclear power engineering quotas and provide consulting opinions and working suggestions for quota management.
Breakthrough developments have also emerged on a technical level. On April 30, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) organization announced via its official website that the 'artificial sun' built by over 30 countries has completed the construction of all components of the world's largest and strongest pulsed superconducting magnetic system. This core component, known as the 'electromagnetic heart,' marks a critical step in humanity's pursuit of controllable nuclear fusion energy, injecting new momentum into the future development of global clean energy.
Institutions: The process of commercializing nuclear fusion has entered a period of intensive catalysis.
Currently, the application of nuclear energy in the power generation field has reached a scale. According to data from the National Energy Administration, as of the end of 2024, China's nuclear power has an installed capacity share of approximately 1.8%, contributing about 4.7% of the national social power generation.
The blue paper titled 'China Nuclear Power Development Report 2025' released by the China Nuclear Energy Association on April 27 shows that the number of nuclear power units in operation, under construction, and approved for construction has reached 102, with a total installed capacity of 0.113 billion kilowatts, making China the world's largest in terms of nuclear power scale for the first time.
The global potential for nuclear energy growth is enormous. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) statistics also indicate that by 2050, global nuclear power capacity will exceed 1.1 billion kilowatts, with small reactors accounting for one-quarter, about 0.3 billion kilowatts of development space urgently needing to be released.
Looking ahead, Institutions generally hold an optimistic view on the prospects of the nuclear fusion industry.
CITIC SEC believes that in recent years, the development of controllable nuclear fusion overseas has accelerated, forcing the domestic industry to advance more rapidly. Short-term experimental reactor investments are driving performance growth for related companies; hybrid reactors have advantages in material and engineering requirements and fuel costs, which can serve as a long-term transitional solution after commercialization. It is recommended to focus on laying out key materials and devices in the nuclear fusion industry chain.
China Merchants released a Research Report stating that the domestic nuclear fusion R&D has recently achieved several milestone advancements. The BEST (fusion energy compact burning plasma device) project engineering has been launched ahead of schedule, and the CRAFT (fusion reactor main system comprehensive research facility) has passed critical component testing and is planned to be fully completed by 2025. With the acceleration of the three-step strategy (BEST-CFEDR-commercial reactor), the commercialization process of nuclear fusion has entered an intensive catalytic period, and the upstream equipment industry chain is expected to benefit from the rapid implementation of experimental reactors and the release of bidding demands.
Huayuan Securities stated that nuclear fusion is a critical battleground for the next generation energy revolution, and the proximity to commercialization will force a competition between China and the United States to begin, leading to an acceleration of capital expenditure in the industry chain. There are three methods to achieve controllable fusion confinement: gravitational, inertial, and magnetic confinement. Currently, with the intensifying competition between China and the United States, nuclear fusion is expected to become the next competition point following artificial intelligence.
