The National Development and Reform Commission Deploys the 15th Five-Year Plan to Designate Nuclear Fusion as a Future Industry

Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission held the first press conference of the "Striving for the '15th Five-Year Plan'" series, systematically introducing the strategic planning and key task deployments for cultivating and strengthening new growth drivers during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, marking the official unveiling of China's macro-level blueprint for emerging and future industries in the next stage.

It is reported that Ren Zhongbao, Deputy Director of the Department of Innovation and High-Tech Development, stated at the meeting that the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, after comprehensively assessing technological trends, have explicitly designated fusion energy, together with quantum technology, biomanufacturing, hydrogen energy, brain-computer interfaces, embodied intelligence, and sixth-generation mobile communications, as the main directions for future industry development during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period. The state will adhere to a nationwide coordinated approach and support regions with favorable conditions in selecting sub-sectors for development in accordance with local conditions.

At the level of scientific and technological innovation and R&D mechanisms, the state will further strengthen the principal role of enterprises in innovation within the development of future industries. By supporting enterprises in leading the implementation of national science and technology projects, building innovation platforms, and leveraging the advantages of the new system of mobilizing national resources, unconventional measures will be adopted to drive decisive breakthroughs in full-chain tackling of key and core technologies in frontier fields such as controlled nuclear fusion.

In response to the characteristics of future industries—long cultivation cycles and high technological risks—the NDRC has made clear that it will improve the risk-sharing mechanism. The exemplary and guiding role of the National Venture Capital Guidance Fund will be fully leveraged to channel "patient capital" primarily toward seed-stage and early-to-mid-stage enterprises in hard-tech fields such as nuclear fusion, complemented by policy support including financing guarantees, risk compensation, and dedicated science and technology insurance, to safeguard the long marathon of industrial development.

In addition, deepening and expanding the "AI+" initiative has been listed as a key direction for deepening during the "15th Five-Year Plan." By establishing national-level AI application pilot and demonstration bases in the energy and manufacturing sectors, AI technology will be deeply integrated into plasma control, numerical simulation, and engineering design of highly complex large-scale scientific facilities such as nuclear fusion, greatly lowering the threshold for deploying frontier technologies and reducing R&D trial-and-error costs.

This press conference formally establishes fusion energy as the core engine of the nation's "15th Five-Year Plan" future industries, marking that China's controlled nuclear fusion has comprehensively advanced from a singular technological exploration to a new stage of deep integration of "technology + industry + capital." This strategic deployment will not only accelerate China's entry into the "leading" tier of global advanced nuclear energy technologies, but also provide solid institutional and policy guarantees for the commercialization of ultimate clean energy.