MOST Sets the Pathway for Hard-Core Science and Technology Breakthroughs in the "15th Five-Year Plan": Comprehensive and Systematic Deployment of Major Basic Research on Controlled Nuclear Fusion to Solidify the Foundation of Future Strategic Energy

At the series-themed press conference on "Getting Off to a Good Start in the '15th Five-Year Plan'" held by the State Council Information Office, the Ministry of Science and Technology officially released the top-level design and core breakthrough roadmap for building a science and technology powerhouse over the next five years. When outlining the layout for major science and technology breakthroughs and original innovation, Minister of Science and Technology Yin Hejun explicitly emphasized that, in strengthening the strategic depth of basic research, China will closely anchor itself to the frontiers of the global energy revolution and, centering on underlying scientific bottlenecks in key fields such as energy and materials, comprehensively and systematically deploy major basic research tasks such as "controlled nuclear fusion" (Controlled Nuclear Fusion), so as to seize the commanding heights of the ultimate clean energy of the future through original and disruptive technological breakthroughs.

Data from the press conference show that China's total social research and development investment reached 3.92 trillion yuan in 2025, R&D intensity (as a share of GDP) rose to 2.8%, and the country's comprehensive innovation capability jumped to 9th in the world, accelerating its transformation from a global participant in science and technology to a leader. Entering the critical breakthrough period of the "15th Five-Year Plan," and facing a new round of industrial revolution characterized by the explosive growth of artificial intelligence computing power, new industrialization, and deep decarbonization, the evolution of traditional energy and conventional low-carbon electricity can no longer fully cover long-term development needs for ultra-high energy density, unlimited, and absolutely safe baseload power. Against this backdrop, controlled nuclear fusion, regarded by the scientific community as humanity's "ultimate energy," has been formally pushed to the core position in the layout of national strategic scientific and technological strength.

Yin Hejun pointed out that major breakthroughs during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period will adhere to combining "from 0 to 1" original exploration with "from 1 to 0" revelation of underlying scientific problems. In the field of controlled nuclear fusion, the breakthrough efforts will focus on key basic theories and engineering verification of technologies such as steady-state confinement operation of high-temperature plasma, burning plasma physics, advanced structural materials resistant to extreme irradiation, engineering of high-temperature superconducting magnets, and tritium self-sustaining breeding cycles. At the same time, the state will accelerate the advancement of "AI for Science," using cutting-edge AI models and high-precision simulation systems to deeply intervene in plasma disruption prediction and active magnetic field control, driving a leapfrog upgrade of the basic research paradigm for nuclear fusion.

Major scientific and technological infrastructure plays an irreplaceable platform role in breakthroughs in nuclear fusion and advanced nuclear technology. When introducing the research support and safeguard system, Vice Minister of Science and Technology Long Teng stated that during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period China will further coordinate and promote the synergistic linkage between major scientific and technological infrastructure and major national breakthrough tasks, and increase independent support capacity and frontier open sharing of national major scientific facilities such as tokamak experimental devices, synchrotron radiation light sources, and spallation neutron sources, so as to provide high-level scientific research verification environments for fusion physics experiments, irradiation damage mechanisms of advanced nuclear-related materials, and in-situ characterization.

At the level of global collaboration and open governance of fusion technology, Vice Minister of Science and Technology Zhang Guangjun stated that, in the face of the common challenges of global climate and future energy transition, China will continue to uphold the concept of openness and inclusiveness, and on the basis of leading and deeply participating in international big science projects such as the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), advance multilateral scientific and technological cooperation in fusion technology, work with all countries to build an open innovation ecosystem, and continue to contribute Chinese solutions to global future energy governance.

This article is based on the on-site transcript of the State Council Information Office's series-themed press conference on "Getting Off to a Good Start in the '15th Five-Year Plan'" and was refined, analyzed, and compiled by artificial intelligence around the topics of nuclear energy and frontier science and technology deployment.