Visiting guests tour the exhibition of industry innovation achievements at the Second Nuclear Technology Application Industrial Chain Co-Chain Action Conference in Nanning, South China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, on November 27, 2025. Photo: Liang Rui/GT
The Second Nuclear Technology Application Industrial Chain Co-Chain Action Conference was held on Thursday in Nanning, South China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, where it released China’s first Nuclear Technology Applications Industrial Chain Consolidation Action Plan along with a series of other outcomes, marking a new phase in which systematic chain-building efforts will drive high-quality growth. During the event, executives explained the Global Times on innovations in nuclear medicine and AI-integrated nuclear technologies, highlighting how nuclear technology is increasingly empowering a wide range of industries across the country.
In a video address at the conference, Najat Mokhtar, deputy director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), praised China’s achievements in nuclear technology development and expressed hope for deeper future cooperation.
Experts from major Chinese nuclear research institutions, social organizations, and leading industry enterprises attended the event and delivered remarks. An expert from the China Atomic Energy Authority said that as China’s atomic energy sector flourishes and governance capacity requirements increase, the enactment of the forthcoming Atomic Energy Law of the People’s Republic of China meets the intrinsic needs of high-quality development in the field. It also serves as a foundation for improving the national nuclear governance system and enhancing nuclear governance capabilities. The expert provided further interpretation of the new law.
Besides that, the Nuclear Technology Applications Industrial Chain Consolidation Action Plan is China’s first systematic industrial chain upgrading initiative jointly launched by an industry association and co-participated by multiple stakeholders. Its goal is to reinforce national security safeguards for the nuclear technology application industry, gradually overcome bottlenecks in key segments, and lay the groundwork for an autonomous, secure, and controllable industry chain, according to the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), one of the organizers of the conference.
The launch ceremony for the Nuclear Technology Applications Industrial Chain Consolidation Action Plan is underway at the conference. Photo: courtesy of CNNC
The conference also launched an integrated media campaign and held four parallel sessions covering “nuclear medicine,” “radiation-modified new materials,” “AI and nuclear technology,” and “smart nuclear power,” alongside the exhibition of industry innovation achievements.
Nuclear technology, also known as isotope and radiation technology, refers primarily to non-power civilian nuclear applications. As a key component of modern science and technology, its associated industries are defined by high-tech, high-efficiency, and high-quality characteristics, making it a representative example of new quality productive forces, according to the CNNC.
According to a briefing provided by the China Isotope and Radiation Association, the IAEA once assessed that nuclear technology directly contributes to nine of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. Nuclear technologies are empowering various industries at unprecedented breadth and depth, said the CNNC.
At present, China’s nuclear technology application industry has formed a multi-tiered, multi-chain system of coordinated development. Several key sub-sectors have achieved large-scale industrialization, and the sector as a whole displays a pattern of “mature chains leading, emerging fields incubating.”
In the medical field, nuclear medicine represents a cutting-edge technology that targets and destroys cancer cells and is also a major direction for future pharmaceutical innovation. Enabled by the nation’s only commercial heavy-water reactor, the Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant, a multi-unit nuclear power plant in Jiaxing, East China’s Zhejiang province, has become an “isotope dream factory,” supporting stable mass production of multiple nuclear medicines and achieving autonomy in raw materials, technological innovation, and domestic substitution.
“By late June 2025, the lutetium-177 isotope produced at Qinshan officially entered the market. After pharmaceutical refinement, it can be used for targeted treatments of prostate cancer and neuroendocrine tumors. Its annual production capacity is sufficient to meet domestic demand,” Li Shisheng, deputy chief engineer at Qinshan Nuclear Power, told the Global Times at the conference. This represents a key breakthrough in China’s independent and controllable production of medical isotopes.
Regarding the integration of AI with nuclear technologies, Peng Hua, vice president of Nuctech, a Chinese partially state-owned security inspection products company, told the Global Times at the conference that current achievements are concentrated primarily in industrial applications. By combining AI with CT technology, they have enabled automated durian grading, lithium-battery defect detection, and optimized security-inspection workflows, significantly improving efficiency and safety while enhancing user experience.
China’s AI-empowered nuclear technologies are now among the most advanced in the world. In customs inspection, for example, our technologies have already entered enforcement procedures and are being steadily rolled out, especially in the area of image recognition. This progress is supported by China’s vast market and high-quality data resources. I’m very confident about future development in this field, Peng added.
By 2026, the independent innovation capability of China’s nuclear technology application industry will be significantly enhanced, and the industrial field will be further expanded, according to the three-year action plan for high-quality development of the nuclear technology application industry (2024–2026) released in 2024.
Over the next three years, breakthroughs will be made in a number of key technologies, a number of innovation platforms will be built, and new enterprises will be cultivated, focusing on the application of nuclear technology in the fields such as medical diagnosis and treatment, agricultural breeding, food processing, safety and security, the three-year action plan added.
