China National Nuclear Corporation Proposes International Fusion Engineering Cooperation Platform at IAEA General Conference

At a side event of the 70th IAEA General Conference in Vienna ('Fusion for the Future: Engineering the Key Pathway to Realising Fusion Energy'), hosted by China Fusion Energy Co (CFEC, established 2025 and operator of the Southwestern Institute of Physics), the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) proposed a new international cooperation platform to help move fusion energy from scientific research toward engineering applications, announced September 17, 2026. The event opened with the signing of a memorandum of cooperation on fusion engineering technologies between CFEC and the ITER Organization, plus a separate memorandum between CNNC's Southwestern Institute of Physics (SWIP) and Thailand's Institute of Nuclear Technology (TINT) for scientific research and exchanges. China's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030) designates fusion energy a future priority industry, with SWIP's HL-3 tokamak having reached 'dual hundred-million-degree' operation (120M°C ion / 160M°C electron temperatures) in 2025; China's stated target is commercial fusion utilization by 2050.