China « nuclear-news

Bridging Geopolitical Divides: International Physiciansfor the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) Revitalizes Dialogue in Russia and China

IPPNW is one of very few professional associations that has not abandoned dialogue with Russian colleagues. Since the summer of 2021, a new, energized cohort of Russian and American medical students and young doctors has hosted informal monthly Zoom calls to build relationships and trust.

Michael Christ, IPPNW Executive Director. September 29, 2026, https://peaceandhealthblog.com/2026/10/14/bridging-geopolitical-divides-ippnw-revitalizes-dialogue-in-russia-and-china/

This month marks the 40th anniversary of the 1986 Reykjavík Summit, the historic meeting where Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev came astonishingly close to completely abolishing the nuclear arsenals of the two superpowers. While the meeting concluded without an official accord due to US insistence on pursuing the Strategic Defense Initiative (“Star Wars”), it nevertheless laid the critical diplomatic foundation for future landmark nuclear disarmament treaties. It also proved that even bitter adversaries can sit at the negotiating table to tackle head-on the greatest immediate threat to human survival.

Tragically, these hard-fought gains have been lost to a steady breakdown in international diplomacy, a dangerous arms race in nuclear weapons and artificial intelligence, and a resort to threats and war to prosecute disputes. This has made the risk of catastrophic miscalculation higher than at any point since the Cold War.

As we did throughout the 1980s, IPPNW is bridging geopolitical divides by engaging our network of physicians and health partners around the world on the growing threat of nuclear war—especially with colleagues in Russia and China—not as an abstract political calculation, but as the final, untreatable global health epidemic.

Monthly Russian-American Exchanges

Participants in these discussions have gone on to publish relevant articles in medical literature, attended key nuclear disarmament meetings at the UN, and become active in local and national campaigns opposing the threat of nuclear war.

Russian Nonproliferation Conference

At the invitation of the Russian Center for Energy and Security Studies (CENESS), IPPNW’s Chuck Johnson traveled to Moscow to participate in high-level discussions on nuclear weapons. CENESS is a think-tank that fosters dialogue and cooperation on nuclear policy, nonproliferation, and nuclear energy issues. Chuck previously served as the founding director of the IPPNW Geneva Liaison Office before transitioning to his role as policy director.

The 2026 Moscow Nonproliferation Conference took place on March 12–14, 2026, bringing together 289 experts—including diplomats, researchers, academics, and advocates—from 49 countries. Roughly half of the participants were Russian. The event also drew high-level officials from key UN agencies and international organizations, such as Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu, and IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi.

During closed-door sessions, participants tackled the major global security challenges in nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament. A special “New Generation Experts Segment” also gathered approximately 40 young professionals from 20 countries to explore the associated risks and opportunities.The effort was the brainchild of Dr. Joe Hodgkin, an attending hospitalist at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Dr. Olga Trushina, a cardiologist at the Russian Cardiology Research and Production Complex (which was founded by her grandfather, IPPNW co-founder Eugene Chazov). Dr. Hodgkin serves on the Board of Directors of IPPNW’s US affiliate, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and Dr. Trushina is a Co-President of IPPNW. Together, they have renewed and re-imagined IPPNW’s founding mission using modern technologies that are integral to their social and professional lives.

This marked the first time IPPNW was invited to this flagship biennial event. The conference provided a rare, high-value opportunity for IPPNW to engage directly with top Russian and international officials and experts—both during the formal panels and in private meetings on the margins.

Renewed Outreach to China

Chuck Johnson has also been at the leading edge of IPPNW’s efforts to strengthen cooperation and dialogue with health professionals, academics, and professional associations in China.

His consistent outreach to Chinese colleagues during international health partner and UN disarmament meetings in Geneva led to an invitation to lecture at the China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing in the fall of 2025.

While in Beijing, he also met with members of the Chinese Medical Association at their headquarters, securing a commitment from them to invite IPPNW doctors to present to medical professionals in China in the coming year. As a result, an IPPNW delegation attending the annual meeting of the Chinese Medical Association’s Medical Ethics Branch in Hefei, the capital of Anhui province, in July 2026. Chuck was joined by Dr. Joe Hodgkin (PSR-USA) and Dr. Tilman Ruff (MAPW-IPPNW Australia).

This visit was our most significant engagement with China since the 2004 IPPNW World Congress in Beijing. The delegation delivered three plenary lectures at the national medical conference, highlighting the critical role of medical and public health professionals in addressing the growing threat of nuclear war.

Following the conference, the team held multiple high-level meetings with dozens of senior academics, health officials, and organizational leaders in both Hefei and Beijing. These discussions were aided significantly by Dr. Hodgkin’s deep cultural knowledge and fluency in Mandarin, as well as Dr. Ruff’s extensive history and leadership within IPPNW.

The delegation discussed several concrete follow-on activities, including planning additional meetings and co-authoring joint publications in prominent Chinese health and science journals focused on the prevention of nuclear war.

By reviving these critical channels of communication, IPPNW ensures that even in times of intense global friction, the medical community remains a vital bridge toward peace. The US, Russia, and China would do well to revive the “spirit of Reykjavík”, returning to the negotiating table to complete what Reagan and Gorbachev came so close to achieving—saving humankind from the growing threat of nuclear war.

October 20, 2026 Posted by Christina Macpherson | China, health, politics international, Russia, USA | Leave a comment

China’s Uranium Enrichment Expansion: Worrisomely Large

October 5, 2026 Dr. Hui Zhang, Senior Research Associate at Harvard’s Belfer Center, Occasional Paper 2603

China recently significantly expanded its uranium enrichment capacity. The predominant view of experts and respected non-governmental organizations is that this expansion is needed to supply China’s growing civilian nuclear energy sector.

As of September 2026, China had 64 power reactors (64 GWe) in operation and another 38 units (40 GWe) under construction, making it the world leader in new reactor construction. Its 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030) calls for installed nuclear capacity of 110 GWe by 2030, and some authoritative Chinese studies recommend reaching roughly 200 GWe by 2040. China’s nuclear power program is therefore expected to grow steadily over the coming decade, and with it the country’s demand for enriched uranium.

To meet this anticipated demand, China has significantly expanded its indigenous enrichment capacity since 2020. Over the same period, however, China has also rapidly enlarged its nuclear arsenal, raising the question of whether its enrichment buildup serves civilian needs alone. The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) estimates that China possessed about 620 warheads in 2026. The US Department of Defense (DoD) assesses that the stockpile remained “in the low 600s” through 2024—roughly triple its 2020 level—and, while noting “a slower rate of production compared to previous years,” projects that China remains on track to field more than 1,000 warheads by 2030. Much of the Western debate has focused on whether China needs additional plutonium to sustain this buildup. Much less attention has been paid to highly enriched uranium (HEU), which China may also need for new warheads, at least for the secondaries of its modern designs.

Assessing these questions is difficult because China does not officially release information on its enrichment capacity. This paper therefore draws on satellite imagery, Chinese publications, and discussions with Chinese experts to reconstruct the scale and trajectory of China’s enrichment program. Building on the author’s earlier estimates, it incorporates several significant developments, including the commissioning of new centrifuge facilities. By the end of 2026, China’s commercial enrichment capacity is estimated to reach about 15.4 million separative work units (SWU) per year—roughly 2.1 times its 2020 capacity of about 7.4 million SWU/year, or more than a doubling in six years.

This growth has not been steady. After an initial construction boom between 2010 and 2015, undertaken to meet the anticipated growth in demand from nuclear power, the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) slowed its expansion between 2016 and 2019, suspending or postponing several planned or partially built projects, largely in response to slower reactor construction. Since around 2020, China has launched a new construction boom. Whereas the earlier expansion was driven primarily by civilian nuclear power, this paper argues that the current wave serves not only civilian needs but also, and importantly, China’s ongoing nuclear weapons buildup.

The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 reviews the development of China’s enrichment industry and technology. Section 3 presents the current status of each of China’s enrichment plants and new capacity estimates. Section 4 compares enrichment supply with civilian demand, estimates how much HEU China would need for an arsenal of 1,000 warheads, and examines whether the timing of the enrichment expansion is consistent with China’s nuclear buildup. Section 5 concludes……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. https://npolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Chinas-Uranium-Enrichment-Expansion-Worrisomely-Large.pdf

October 14, 2026 Posted by Christina Macpherson | China, Uranium | Leave a comment

The Day America Deleted a Word

A Pen, a Paper, and the End of “AI”

SinoDataCrit ( Kakajusaiyou ）, Oct 04, 2026

On September 29, 2026, President Trump signed an executive order requiring every federal department and agency to replace the term “Artificial Intelligence” (AI) with “Super Intelligence” (SI) in official correspondence, public communications, websites, reports, and all non-statutory documents.

The order didn’t just promote a new term. It buried the old one. The White House’s own fact sheet states that agencies should “no longer acknowledge the terms ‘Artificial Intelligence’ or ‘AI.’“ Read that again. Not “phase out.” Not “update.” No longer acknowledge.

The same day, the tech titans were summoned to the White House — Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jensen Huang, OpenAI president Greg Brockman, Palantir CEO Alex Karp. They signed the “White House Accord on Super Intelligence,” a voluntary safety pledge with no legal force, which Trump described as working “like a constitution.” Zuckerberg began using “Super Intelligence” in product announcements within 24 hours. The field that was born at Dartmouth College in 1956 had been renamed by executive fiat in 2026 — seventy years, almost to the season, after John McCarthy coined the term his own government now refuses to say.

The official rationale? A White House fact sheet titled “President Donald J. Trump Inaugurates The Era of Super Intelligence” argues that “artificial” implies merely “imitating or automating human intelligence,” while Super Intelligence “conveys the true capabilities” of the technology. Trump himself was blunter: the word “artificial” makes people think of fake.

There was, in fairness, a domestic political reason. A Quinnipiac poll in March 2026 found that 55% of American adults believe AI does more harm than good — up 11 percentage points in a single year. “Artificial intelligence” had become a toxic brand. Rebranding it “Super Intelligence” is, on one level, the world’s most expensive PR relaunch.

But if you think this is just marketing, you’re missing the oldest trick in the innovation empire. And it took a viral post on Chinese Q&A platform Zhihu — 4,700+ upvotes and climbing — to name the mechanism with perfect clarity. This article brings that analysis to an English audience, because it deserves one.

The Category Game: How “0-to-1” Is Manufactured

Start with a question that circulates endlessly in Western commentary: why do Chinese companies never seem to do “0-to-1” innovation?

Here’s the uncomfortable answer: “0-to-1” is not a fact. It’s a category decision — and categories can be gerrymandered.

The Zhihu analysis offers a thought experiment. Suppose a Chinese company invents the electric vehicle. A skeptic says: “That’s not 0-to-1. It’s a derivative of the car — a 1-to-100 improvement. Thank Karl Benz.” Fine — so what if the Chinese had invented the car itself? The skeptic zooms out: “That’s not 0-to-1 either. It’s a refinement of the wheel — a category humans have had for 4,000 years. Thank the ancients.”

See the mechanism? Expand the category far enough, and every invention becomes an increment. Whoever controls the category — whoever gets to decide whether “EV” is a new thing or a subset of “car” — controls whether your work counts as creation or derivation.

Now the flip side. How does anyone ever get credit for a 0-to-1? Not by building it. By naming it. A brand-new word — preferably one with a unique sound and no derivation from existing vocabulary — creates a brand-new category. And a new category has no ancestors. It pops into existence with its inventor standing at its head.

A new word doesn’t describe a new thing. It legislates a new thing into the ledger of human achievement.

Eponyms Are Property Deeds

Look at how English names its own inventions versus everyone else’s.

For its own breakthroughs, English mints eponyms — words with a founder’s name stamped on them like a trademark. Diesel, after Rudolf Diesel. Braille, after Louis Braille. The ballpoint pen that half the world calls a “biro,” after László Bíró. Every one of these is a property deed: the technology and the credit travel together, permanently, in a single syllable.

For everyone else’s breakthroughs, English does something different: it assimilates them into existing vocabulary as derivatives. Paper became “paper” — a word whose root is papyrus, the Egyptian writing reed. Gunpowder became “gunpowder” — a tidy English compound. China invented both; the English words quietly suggest both were variations on something the West already had.

The etymology does the theft silently. To an English speaker, papyrus is “an early, imperfect paper.” To a Chinese speaker, the relationship inverts: papyrus is just a reed that failed to become paper. Same history. Opposite property registry.

This is not a conspiracy. It’s a linguistic reflex — but it has the effect of a colonial land grab. The Zhihu author’s sharp observation: English borrows raw phonetics mainly from “prestige” languages it admires (French, Latin, Greek), or for “exotic, often derogatory” concepts (coolie, ramen). For ideas from civilizations it competes with, it prefers translation — because translation buries the original’s ownership inside a familiar word……………………………………………………………………………………………………..

The Modern Playbook: Metaverse, Sixth-Gen Fighters, DeepSeek

This machinery is not historical. It’s running right now, and you’ve watched it operate three times in recent years.

Metaverse. A word coined in a 1992 science fiction novel, adopted as a company name in 2021. Technologically, “the metaverse” contained nothing that virtual worlds hadn’t contained for two decades — no new architecture, no new interaction paradigm. But it had a minted word, a category nobody had to share with the past. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Decoding SI: The Hedge Fund of Categories

Now the executive order makes complete sense.

The United States coined “artificial intelligence” in 1956. Its White House proudly asserts — correctly — that America is “the birthplace” of the field and has led it for “over 70 years.” That name, and that founding, is one of America’s greatest narrative assets: the entire global industry carries American words in its name.

But here’s the problem the White House faces in 2026: Chinese models have reached genuine parity — benchmark-for-benchmark, dollar-for-dollar the efficiency argument even favors China. If the race stays called “AI,” then the most likely outcome is that the “birthplace” gets out-innovated in its own category, on its own vocabulary. The founding nation would become the incumbent that lost its own field.

So instead of defending the old category, America redrew the map. Rename the category “Super Intelligence,” decree that the old name shall not be acknowledged — and instantly, every Chinese achievement in “AI” becomes progress in a field that no longer officially exists. Chinese labs will keep doing brilliant work in the old category: that’s a 1-to-100 story now, and America has already stamped itself at the “0” of the new one. Your AI is impressive; our SI is a different thing. You can never beat us at SI, because we invented the word, and the word is the race.

It’s the category game at national scale: when you can’t win the category, delete the category.

Notice the asymmetry of costs. DeepSeek’s efficiency breakthrough took years of engineering under sanctions. Huawei’s chip roadmap took seven years of siege economics. The SI rename took one pen. In narrative warfare, renaming is the cheapest weapon with the longest reach — it costs nothing and repositions everything.

And notice what the order does domestically, too. The same fact sheet announces $5 billion for a “Genesis Mission” and a “National Super Intelligence Policy Framework.” The unpopular, frightening “AI” — the one 55% of Americans distrust — quietly becomes somebody else’s legacy technology. The fear is inherited with the old word. The promise is minted with the new one.

The Counter-Move: China Is Learning to Mint Words

Here’s what makes this moment genuinely interesting, and why I’ve spent days on this question: China’s best answer isn’t to complain about the renaming. It’s to start minting categories of its own……………………………………………………………………………………………………… https://sinodatacrit.substack.com/p/the-day-america-deleted-a-word?publication_id=7110991&post_id=218751184&isFreemail=true&r=3alev&triedRedirect=true&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

October 9, 2026 Posted by Christina Macpherson | China, politics international, USA | Leave a comment

US, China And Russia Race To Build Nuclear Reactors On The Moon: Report

New Delhi:

The United States, China and Russia are racing to develop nuclear reactors for the Moon as they prepare for future space exploration. The countries believe nuclear power will be important for building permanent lunar bases, exploring resources and supporting missions deeper into space

The US aims to launch a lunar nuclear reactor by 2030, while Russia and China are working towards a joint project by 2036. The plans could power future Moon bases but have also raised safety concerns.

NDTV, Edited by: Siddhi Singh, Oct 04, 2026

New Delhi:

According to The New York Times, NASA in August asked contractors to prepare a nuclear reactor that can survive a space journey and operate without maintenance near the Moon’s south pole. The agency aims to have the reactor ready for launch by December 2030.

Russia, meanwhile, plans to develop a lunar reactor called Selena by 2036 as part of its secretive partnership with China. The project is intended to provide power to lunar stations led by China…………………………………………………….

Safety Concerns Over Nuclear Power In Space

Despite the plans, scientists have warned that rushing to build lunar reactors could create serious risks. Rocket launch failures could cause accidents involving nuclear reactors and potentially spread radioactive material. Experts have also pointed out that installing and maintaining a reactor on the Moon would be challenging.

Unlike reactors on Earth, lunar reactors would be difficult to protect with containment structures, and experts say areas around them may need to be restricted to reduce radiation risks to astronauts and equipment.

As per The New York Times report, both the US and Russia plan to send their reactors to the Moon in an inactive state, reducing some risks during transport. However, experts say accidents cannot be ruled out, even with safety reviews.

Who Owns The Moon?

The race has also raised questions about access to the Moon and its resources. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty states that no country can claim the Moon as its territory. However, questions remain over whether countries can restrict access to areas around their lunar bases and whether they can own the resources they extract from the Moon.

NASA accelerated its plans amid fears that a nuclear reactor built by China and Russia could establish a restricted zone on the Moon, limiting where American astronauts and rovers could travel. Space law experts have questioned whether such zones, even if created for safety reasons, would conflict with the principle of free access to space under the Outer Space Treaty.

The US, China and Russia have yet to prove that their proposed reactors can be installed and operated on the Moon. Their timelines could also change as technical and safety challenges are addressed. https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-china-and-russia-race-to-build-nuclear-reactors-on-the-moon-report-12137354

October 7, 2026 Posted by Christina Macpherson | China, Russia, space travel, USA | Leave a comment

Xi in Washington: A Test of Strategic Stability

Biljana Vankovska, 26 Sept 26

The reciprocal visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Washington is a logical topic for analysis following their historic meeting in May. Many assess its importance as historic, more because of the dramatic moment in which it took place than because of its concrete results. Nevertheless, following the scandalous address by US President Donald Trump from the podium of the UN General Assembly, every analyst also faces a moral and principled dilemma: can this leader be trusted? The speech contained at least four flagrant violations of the UN Charter, but who knows how many more in the context of human rights. One way to overcome the shock, and then the enormous difference between the two leaders, is to say that “Trump has his own style” (and nobody can stop him from that, however much it may create a feeling of revulsion). The second observation would be that, from that podium, leaders most often address their domestic audience rather than the world. Trump is a president with enormous domestic problems: low public support, economic pressures and military ventures that show more the weakness of the military giant than its superiority. He is also facing a very important electoral test at the beginning of November, when support in Congress will be measured.

On the other hand, the guest arrived without the need to address his own public from some distant country, nor to show his muscles or successes. China’s achievements speak for themselves. And day by day, the gap between the two economies, their technological, industrial, energy and other development, is only deepening.

Some analysts wondered why Xi did not address the UN in New York, but instead chose to visit only the White House (at the UN, his vice-president spoke). But the message is clear: first, the two countries have many things to discuss, and it is no exaggeration to say that world peace and security depend on their mutual relationship and understanding. Just as a person cannot choose their parents or the place where they are born, states are also forced to coexist, even when some members of the community break all the rules of morality, decency and honour. As ordinary people, we can choose our company and our friends, but statesmen (especially wise ones) do not have that luxury. Their greatest attention is directed precisely towards points of escalation and growing differences. Therefore, although it sounds paradoxical, coexistence and communication are most important when the world is facing a deep crisis and needs to find a way out. This is particularly true when the (until recently) hegemon is falling apart both internally and externally; then it is at its most dangerous and unpredictable (which does not necessarily have anything to do with the personality of the current president, who is a story in himself).

The formula on which the leaders of the two largest economies extended their hands to each other in Beijing, let us recall, is: constructive strategic stability. Although I have written about this on several occasions, it is necessary to stress again that this formula contains the wisdom of not allowing the boat to rock more than is inevitable, of managing crises step by step, issue by issue, or at least maintaining communication — because the alternative is apocalyptic. This is precisely the message from Xi about avoiding the Thucydides Trap (mentioned both in Beijing and Washington), that is, finding a way for the two sides to respect their differences, to be aware of potential clashes, but to work continuously (and constructively) to avoid an outcome that for one side would amount to a major defeat. He defined it masterfully as relations of “healthy competition, proper management of differences through seeking common ground while respecting differences, and building peace by nurturing mutual trust, so that constructive China-US relations of strategic stability can be of greater benefit to both peoples, as well as to peoples around the world”. Stability (in this formula) does not mean permanence and immutability of the present state of affairs, but careful resolution of problems through the building of relations in which there are neither winners nor humiliated losers………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. https://biljanavankovska.substack.com/p/xi-in-washington-a-test-of-strategic?r=4ds0bd&utm_medium=ios

September 28, 2026 Posted by Christina Macpherson | China, politics international | Leave a comment

US proposes AI alert system with China

Mon, 21 Sep 2026, https://www.sott.net/article/508524-US-proposes-AI-alert-system-with-China

The US has proposed creating an alert system with China to notify each other when artificial intelligence incidents become serious enough to threaten national security.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the proposal after talks with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in New York on Sunday, ahead of a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Washington this week. Bessent told reporters:

“We want a shared vision of common goals and common threats. We think that just like any cross-border activity, that moving from opaque to more transparency between the No. 1 and the No. 2 AI powers in the world is very important.”

The proposed mechanism could cover serious incidents such as AI-enabled cyberattacks or major model failures, according to experts cited by AP. Chinese researchers have also pointed to risks to critical infrastructure including electricity, telecommunications, finance and transportation.

The proposal comes as Washington and Beijing have been locked in an increasingly intense race to dominate AI. Trump has repeatedly argued that the US cannot afford to slow development while China is rapidly narrowing the technological gap.

Earlier this month, Trump declared that “whoever wins AI wins,” and has dismissed warnings of an AI takeover as a “hoax.” On Saturday, Trump again vowed that his administration would not “hinder or stifle” the industry and announced plans to create an “AI Force” and appoint an AI czar.

His position comes amid increasingly stark warnings from leading technology executives.Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has called for development of the most powerful AI systems to be slowed, warning of risks including loss of human control, cyberattacks, bioterrorism and major economic disruption. OpenAI chief Sam Altman and xAI owner Elon Musk have backed calls for greater caution.

A series of recent incidents has added to the concerns. Google confirmed this month that its Gemini system breached three real companies during a cybersecurity exercise after it was mistakenly given internet access. OpenAI agents have separately bypassed restrictions during testing, accessed outside systems and used websites to communicate with one another without being instructed to do so.

US-China competition has meanwhile expanded beyond model development itself. Washington has sought to restrict China’s access to advanced chips and other technology while accusing Chinese companies of extracting capabilities from leading American models.

Beijing has rejected the accusations and accused Washington of seeking an AI monopoly. Despite US restrictions, Chinese developers including DeepSeek and Moonshot have released increasingly capable systems that compete with leading American models, often at a lower cost.

China has also been building a broader international framework around AI. In July, it joined Russia and 27 other countries in establishing the Shanghai-based World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization, presenting it as an alternative approach based on wider access to AI technology and international cooperation rather than technological blocs.

September 26, 2026 Posted by Christina Macpherson | China, politics international, USA | Leave a comment

Revealed: Xi’s nuclear weapons expansion at seven secret sites

The Chinese president – who is meeting Trump on Thursday – has repeatedly
said nations should destroy their stockpiles. China is rapidly expanding
its nuclear weapons programme across at least seven major sites despite
calling for non-proliferation, a Telegraph investigation has found.
Satellite image analysis has uncovered significant construction at nuclear
facilities and testing areas across the country. At one site, where China
is believed to produce the plutonium triggers designed to activate nuclear
weapons, an entire support town has been built, with new apartment blocks,
an athletics field, and a bus depot used to transport staff to and from the
nuclear site. At another, a 600m-long tube has been built. Experts say it
is used to test how nuclear weapons would withstand blasts – for
instance, from enemy weapons.

Telegraph 23rd Sept 2026,
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/china-secret-nuclear-weapon-sites-xi/

September 26, 2026 Posted by Christina Macpherson | China, weapons and war | Leave a comment

China Will Dominate Global Nuclear Energy Through 2035, Analyst Says.

COMMENT. This all sounds great for the nuclear industry.

But let’s not forget – China Keeps Beating Renewable Targets And Missing Nuclear Ones

Oil Price, By Haley Zaremba – Sep 20, 2026

China added 34 gigawatts of nuclear capacity over the last decade while the US added just one plant, Georgia’s long-delayed Plant Vogtle.
Beijing signed a new deal with the IAEA to share its expertise on high-temperature gas-cooled reactors, a rare opening from a historically secretive sector.
Analysts expect China to overtake the US as the world’s top nuclear energy producer within the next decade, with AI’s power demand adding urgency.

The future of nuclear energy is in China’s hands. While the United States remains the world’s largest producer of nuclear energy, China’s sector is growing at such a rapid clip that it is expected to overtake France as well as the United States to become the world’s leading nuclear power producer within the next decade. In addition to this rapid expansion of traditional nuclear power capacity, Beijing has also quickly become the global leader in a broad and diverse range of advanced nuclear power technologies.

“By a wide margin, China will have the world’s most dynamic and significant nuclear industry through 2035,” Damien Ma, energy lead analyst for Gavekal Technologies, wrote in a recent report, as quoted by the South China Morning Post. “Construction efficiencies mean China can build a new plant in about six years, compared with more than a decade for the latest Vogtle reactors in the US,” Ma went on to say.

The United States has added just one nuclear plant in the last decade, Georgia’s long-delayed, over-budget, and controversial Plant Vogtle. Over the same time, China added a staggering 34 gigawatts of capacity. And, Beijing’s latest five year plan shows that China has no intentions of slowing down……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

while China is historically quite secretive about its technological advancements and cutting-edge energy sector developments, this week Beijing made a surprising move to share its expertise with the rest of the world. This week, China signed a deal with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to more freely share its knowledge on high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs) with other countries. HGTRs are a form of advanced fourth-generation reactor that is capable of producing nuclear energy at extremely high temperatures, opening avenues for use in a variety of industrial applications.

The new deal “covers cooperation in HTGR research and development, reactor design, construction, commissioning and operation,” as well as the exchange of “information on supply chains and personnel training,” according to a recent Interesting Engineering report. “The deal could give other countries greater access to China’s engineering experience with HTGRs as interest grows in nuclear systems that can provide both electricity and high-temperature industrial heat.”………….https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Nuclear-Power/China-Will-Dominate-Global-Nuclear-Energy-Through-2035-Analyst-Says.html

September 24, 2026 Posted by Christina Macpherson | China, politics international | Leave a comment

Ending the nuclear arms race starts with cities doing their part

A recent study from the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force Characteristic Medical Centre, which was published in the Chinese Journal of Radiological Health, was a stark reminder that while low, the probability of a nuclear attack on cities is not zero. Any such attack would overwhelm emergency services.

More than 1,000 cities in 24 countries have called on their national governments to join the TPNW as a way to halt the nuclear arms race. Cities such as New York, Canberra, Berlin, Paris, Rome and Washington have all encouraged their governments to join the TPNW and eliminate their nuclear arsenals.

As cities are the main targets of nuclear weapons, they have a responsibility to speak out and encourage efforts to eliminate them

Susi Snyder, 18 Sep 2026, Susi Snyder is director of programmes for the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize winner.

The catastrophic danger posed to cities by nuclear weapons is nothing new. Putting major urban areas at risk across generations is, in fact, the point of these weapons of terror. The practice of doing so is benignly called nuclear deterrence, but it requires holding the cities of adversaries – real and imagined – under constant threat.

The use of even the smallest nuclear weapons in today’s arsenals would cause a humanitarian emergency in cities. That is why city leadership should have a voice in nuclear policymaking.

Attacking cities or other densely populated areas has always been part of warfare. Whether it’s medieval sieges to unseat ruling powers or drone attacks on Kyiv, cities are not safe from war. Efforts to restrict or limit civilian suffering in cities and populated areas have included the endorsement by 91 countries of a political declaration on explosive weapons in populated areas.

Through this, nations are looking for ways to reduce and prevent the known reverberating effects of explosive ordnance contamination in urban areas, effects which are compounded and made long-lasting by the destruction of cultural, educational, commercial, infrastructure and healthcare facilities. Nuclear weapons are highly explosive weapons which also leave a lasting radioactive legacy.

No country is prepared to respond to the use of nuclear weapons. A 2014 report from the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research showed that there are unique problems associated with nuclear weapon use, including radiation and radioactive fallout, large numbers of injured people with multiple trauma, serious burn injuries and radiation-related illness. They also found “there are inadequate specific procedures and systems appropriate to nuclear weapon detonation events as these differ from civil nuclear accidents in significant ways”.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) published a study looking at the response capacity in key global cities, including Beijing. In that study, we found even if just one average-sized, 100-kiloton nuclear weapon was detonated over Beijing today, the immediate health impact would be catastrophic. There are not enough medical personnel or hospital facilities to treat what could amount to 1.2 million casualties.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) put it succinctly, saying: “There is no adequate humanitarian response capacity in case of use of nuclear weapons.” The ICRC, UN humanitarian agencies and more than 100 governments recognise the only way to ensure protection from nuclear weapons is by preventing their accidental or intentional use.

The legal framework to do so exists. The framework of nuclear weapons-related agreements, from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), offers a way to move towards verifiable and irreversible nuclear disarmament.

As cities are the main targets of nuclear weapons, municipalities have a special responsibility to their populations to speak out against any role for nuclear weapons in national security doctrines and encourage efforts to eliminate the risk of nuclear weapons. Mayors and other municipal leaders are rising to the challenge.

Through the ICAN Cities Appeal, these cities are empowered to act locally on global issues such as nuclear disarmament, stand up for the protection of those living in their cities and demand action. The gruesome images of the two cities destroyed by nuclear weapons, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, are a reminder of everything at risk from nuclear dangers.

In efforts to protect civilians, leadership might not always come from the highest levels of government. Instead, it might rise from the cities, the communities and the people who see nuclear weapons as a threat. The growing support for the ICAN Cities Appeal and the TPNW, especially in countries where national governments are clinging to outdated policies that allow for the use of nuclear weapons, shows that leadership.

September 23, 2026 Posted by Christina Macpherson | China, weapons and war | Leave a comment

China sets out fusion progress, collaboration opportunities

World Nuclear News 18th Sept 2026

China’s aim to achieve the commercial utilisation of fusion energy by 2050, and the benefits to be gained from international collaboration, have been set out at Fusion for the Future: Engineering the Key Pathway to Realising Fusion Energy, a side event at the 70th IAEA General Conference.

The event, hosted by China Fusion Energy Co, which is part of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), began with the signing of cooperation agreements with the multinational ITER fusion project and between China’s Southwestern Institute of Physics and the Thailand Institute of Nuclear Technology.

China Fusion Energy Co was established in 2025 and manages the Southwestern Institute of Physics (SWIP) which was established in 1965 and was China’s earliest professional research institute dedicated to the development of controlled nuclear fusion energy and research on fusion plasma physics.

The institute, which has developed more than 20 fusion research devices of various magnetic configurations, “serves as a national team and core force in fusion reactor R&D under the ‘three step’ national nuclear energy development strategy”. It has three campuses across two cities – Chengdu in Sichuan province and in Shanghai.

The event in Vienna was also told that the HL-3 device, the largest and highest-parameter tokamak in China, had since 2020 achieved “continuous breakthroughs” and in 2025 it achieved “dual hundred-million-degree” operation, with an ion temperature of 120 million degrees Celsius and an electron temperature of 160 million degrees Celsius…………………………………………………

In terms of global cooperation, the meeting heard that nuclear fusion “has advanced from fundamental research to engineering demonstration and pre-commercial phases”. But while scientific feasibility has been verified, “engineering bottlenecks remain the key challenge” and “existing international mechanisms focus on R&D, lack dedicated frameworks for fusion engineering innovation, industrial collaboration and standard-setting”.

“Gaps in the engineering chain propagate costs and risks downstream, demanding systematic engineering collaboration. Confronted with unprecedented engineering challenges, accelerated breakthroughs can only be achieved by pooling global wisdom and strengths. The initiative targets breaking down barriers, promoting co-construction and shared benefits, and advancing the early commercialisation of fusion energy.”

A Global Fusion Supply Chain Sharing Programme is proposed which “aims to break bottlenecks, cut costs and accelerate industrialisation, pursues joint procurement, unified standards, risk-sharing and technology collaboration and builds a safe, efficient and sustainable industrial ecosystem”.

The tasks include creating a “universal engineering language for fusion engineering” and uniting “top global fusion experts to jointly develop a scientific, rigorous industry-standard system”.

Global research institutions and enterprises were invited to participate with the message that “together we can build an open, collaborative ecosystem that delivers clean, sustainable energy for humanity’s future”.
https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/articles/china-sets-out-fusion-progress-collaboration-opportunities

September 23, 2026 Posted by Christina Macpherson | China, technology | Leave a comment

China v. US: The Great Mideast AI Race Heats Up

September 8, 2026, Neil Thompson, https://www.juancole.com/2026/09/china-great-mideast.html

London– Last week, China’s President Xi Jinping made his first state visit to Egypt since 2016, amid deepening economic and security ties between Beijing and one of Washington’s major Arab allies. Egypt’s government said the two sides agreed to launch the third phase of a cooperative industrial zone in the Suez Canal, as Cario seeks to diversify its major foreign policy relations beyond just the US. The latter still supplies Egypt with $1.3 billion in military aid each year but faces growing geopolitical competition from China.

In a statement clearly designed to appeal to Egyptian audiences, where the Suez Canal is a major economic engine, Xi said that China “stands ready to work with countries in the region to safeguard the security of international shipping lanes, advance development cooperation … and eliminate the breeding grounds for conflict.” Instability in the Red Sea since 2023 and the US-Iran conflict since February have caused maritime traffic through the canal to drop sharply, though the major Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd shipping lines signalled last month that they were planning a phased return. hottest year on record in 2024, and that heatwaves there are becoming longer and more intense.

It is also during these months that the region’s new AI infrastructure needs the most water and energy to cool its server farms, too. Even without higher temperatures, the average data centre has the equivalent water demand of around 1,000 households per day, while a large one uses around 5 million gallons a day, the same as a town of up to 50,000 residents. Gulf countries like the UAE are engaged in massive construction of more desalination plants to meet this expected AI-related upsurge in water (and power) demand as a result. UAE regulators have denied the increase in water demand will cause them problems, with the head of regulatory affairs at Abu Dhabi’s Department of Energy saying in April: “We rely on desalination [plants] that have proven in the last 50 years to be a very reliable source for potable water.”

Conclusion

Middle Eastern countries outside the GCC will face similar problems with rising temperatures driving household power and water demand just as AI-related demand also increases. AI infrastructure projects may outpace regional water and power development without careful planning. In May, Egypt said it planned to meet future AI data centre power demand there using renewable energy. It is investing significantly in wind farms and other projects, including expanding regional interconnections with other countries’ power grids in Saudi Arabia, Europe and Sudan. However, these projects are vulnerable to timetable slippages from obstacles like construction sector supply chain disruption or port congestion at Egyptian terminals. With a growing population seeking jobs, Egypt’s government seems likely to press ahead regardless.

China’s expertise in both AI and green technology could likely help ease many Middle Eastern countries’ attempted transition to a digitalised and clean-energy powered economic future. But geopolitical competition with the US will add a political and diplomatic dimension to any projects with Chinese participation. The US is still a major security partner for many Middle Eastern governments, and Washington could threaten to withdraw military aid in response to a growing dependence on Chinese AI systems in allied regional governments or economies. The US fears Egypt allowing Chinese AI systems in its public sector would create cybersecurity risks for its agents and companies there. US fear of China could impede Middle Eastern states’ uptake of Chinese AI infrastructure and models, but also their uptake of Beijing’s greener gifts.

China Dangles Growth, Security Partnership

Beijing has also made Egypt’s government another offer of economic and technological development through state-linked firm Huawei. Egypt has ambitious plans to expand AI’s contribution to its economy to 7.7% of GDP by 2030, offering China an opening to challenge the US lead on global AI infrastructure by starting with a small project in the Middle East. Huawei bid on an Egyptian government tender in August to build public sector AI data centers there, in partnership with iFlytek, a Chinese surveillance company. Both Chinese companies are on a US blacklist, and Washington has approached US firms including Nvidia, AMD and Microsoft to put together a counterbid. Egypt has yet to announce a decision, but the move signals an intensifying race between Beijing and Washington to recruit more regional states into their respective AI stacks.

China’s Middle Eastern AI Footprint Expands Elsewhere

China and the US have each launched their own multinational AI alliances; in China’s case, this is the World AI Cooperation Organisation (WAICO), while the US set up the Pax Silica in December. Both groups contain a few Middle Eastern states so far, with Iran, Algeria and Oman joining WAICO, and Israel, Qatar, and the UAE have joined the Pax Silica. However, Chinese companies have launched AI-related projects in multiple Middle Eastern countries prior to WAICO’s launch, and Beijing’s AI-infrastructure footprint is likely to extend well outside the alliance’s formal Middle Eastern members. Middle Eastern firms are increasingly willing to use Chinese technology to launch their own AI models indigenous to the region, too.

In October, Chinese firm Alibaba opened a sector data centre in Dubai. In January, the UAE’s Emirate of Sharjah signed an agreement with Chinese AI infrastructure and cloud computing services provider DataCanvas to examine establishing data centers there. Finally, in September Saudi technology firm Humain released an Arabic-language AI model based on a Chinese one created by Chinese AI firm MiniMax. Chen Jing, a vice president of China’s Technology and Strategy Research Institute, told state media there that: “Unlike in the past, when Chinese LLMs primarily entered overseas markets through APIs or application products, in this collaboration, MiniMax M3 has directly become the foundational model for overseas indigenous model development.” Humain is financed by Riyad’s Saudi Public Investment Fund, indicating Saudi state backing for the firm’s project, despite Saudi Arabia not being a member of WAICO.

AI Growth, Environmental Cost?

Officials, activists and academics have warned that while economically Middle Eastern states may benefit from the race between the US and China to offer them investment and technology, this will likely come at an environmental cost. In April, the Qatar-based Middle East Council on Global Affairs research centre published a report warning that water and power demand for AI data centres presented a significant ecological challenge to Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states. GCC members already struggle to meet power and water demand during the summer months, when temperatures traditionally soar. This issue is getting worse. In December, the World Meteorological Organization issued its first report on the state of the climate in Arab states. It warned that these states had their

September 10, 2026 Posted by Christina Macpherson | China, technology, USA | Leave a comment

Beyond China’s humanoid robots, a quieter machine revolution is unfolding

Laura Bicker, 25 Aug 26,
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62m4zn1q6mo

“I take a nap and the world changes,” says Chen Tianyu.

His world certainly does. The 28-year-old keeps up with the latest technology by spending his spare time in factories that are switching to automation. That way he knows what to prioritise when teaching his class about artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics.

In front of him, around 30 college students are studying code. One of them is typing furiously as his eyes dart from the screen to the robot: “The idea is it will grab that cylindrical piece and move it over there.”

A line of industrial robots are waiting to be programmed, and in another part of the classroom, students are trying to develop robotic medical instruments. As he guides them, Chen declares: “If you are not needed by the world of AI and robotics, then you’ll definitely be among those eliminated”.

For the people in this room, this is a step – or rather a leap – towards a future that China is meticulously building: Xi Jinping’s $20bn (£14.7bn) plan to put his country at the forefront of innovation and in direct competition with the US.

The evidence is all around them. They are in the Hangzhou Technician Institute, one of several huge, purpose-built vocational schools that want to churn out the next generation of tech-savvy engineers. The campus sits on the outskirts of Hangzhou, a former imperial capital whose futuristic skyline is just the first hint of its role as a global tech hub.

Across the country, there are more than two million robots working in China’s factories – which is more than anywhere else – and they are continuing to scale up at extraordinary speed.

It is a commitment that will surely change the world, much like the last time the Chinese economy underwent a massive transformation. It is already shipping its robots across the globe: more than half of the world’s industrial robots are now made in China.

What is less clear is the impact of such sweeping automation in a country that sits at the heart of global manufacturing, trade and innovation. What does this mean for China’s human workforce, for instance? And how would we be able to truly measure the cost of this transformation in a regime that controls information so tightly?

The future of China’s workers is uncertain in the industrial revolution the world has been watching: gleaming solar grids, peak hours made noiseless by electric vehicles, machines that run faster than Usain Bolt. Over the weekend, China hosted the second edition of the World Humanoid Games where robots boxed, sprinted and marched.

What is fuelling this spectacle is another, less visible revolution happening inside factories and classrooms.

The BBC has visited industrial sites where we have been shown robots that do not look human, or dance or leap on stage but weld, paint, lift, assemble and work around the clock without a break or benefits. Some are designed to build more robots. We have also been inside academies where China is training the people who will work alongside its robotic workforce.

This is a front-row seat to what Xi calls China’s “new productive forces” – and how they could reshape the country.

On a factory floor in the southern city of Chengdu, the old and and the new are working side by side.

An assembly line of around 30 middle-aged men and women is screwing, drilling and polishing CRP Technology’s signature product: a robotic arm which performs various industrial tasks. Also in the room are four young engineers crowded around a console, trying to crack the code for a prototype, a new robot that they hope will help build other robots.

One of them, 31-year-old Pang Kai, who is part of the research and development team, pushes the sleek skeleton across the room. Because China’s future workforce is not quite ready to strut out. For now, it can only do simple repetitive movements, such as scan a QR code.

“Maybe in another half year, it can do another task,” Pang says, smiling wistfully. It’s a long road and the team are celebrating every small win.

CRP Technology, which employs around 300 people, has been building robot arms for nine years. Each arm can be tailored to a factory’s needs to help build cars, electronics or wind turbines. The firm says a single arm can be programmed to perform more than 90% of repetitive tasks.

The engineers also wonder if, one day, they can replace the company’s workforce. “We want our new robot to be like human beings. We hope it can think by itself,” says Pang. “We need these kinds of robots because maybe in 10 years, we won’t have enough workers in China.”

A shrinking population and an ageing workforce is another reason Beijing is in a hurry to revolutionise its factories. By 2035, more than a third of China’s population will be over 60, according to official estimates. The country will also lose nearly 60 million people in the next decade – almost equivalent to the population of France – according to some estimates.

The hope is that increased automation will fill this looming gap in the workforce before it starts to affect an already sluggish economy. But the speed of the transition is key. Around 120 million people still work in the manufacturing sector. If China moves too quickly, job losses could follow dealing a catastrophic blow to millions who depend on factory wages.

“In theory, machines can work 24 hours a day, which is certainly an advantage compared with human workers. But machines also require maintenance. Every day we need time for that, and each month the production line also requires inspection and repair,” says Cao Li, vice-president of EV maker Leapmotor.

Increasingly popular in Europe and the UK, the company’s budget-friendly, tech-focused cars come together at the Hangzhou factory with robots aiding the process at every step. At the end of the assembly line, more humans emerge.

The company has more than 25,000 workers and hundreds of them make the final checks as the sparkling new vehicles roll past. Will there be a day when they are no longer needed?

“It’s entirely possible,” Cao says. “And it may come relatively quickly. In workshops, including stamping, welding, and painting, we’ve basically achieved 100% automation.”

China has the edge over the US due to its enormous manufacturing base. Motors, batteries, electronics, gears, sensors – everything needed to build the body of a robot is all at hand.

“China also has an idea. It has a plan. They know where they want to be in five years. They plan at a top level, but they break it down to the regions, to the municipalities,” says Dr Susanne Bieller, General Secretary of the International Federation of Robotics.

“If you want to build a robot in Shenzhen – there’s an entire ecosystem. It takes you less than one hour to source the components you need to make a robot. In Europe it can take you up to a week.”

However, she acknowledges that while China is good at building the body, the US is still leading at building the “brain”, which includes developing the AI to programme robots. And yet Chinese firms, from DeepSeek to Moonshot, have been unveiling new AI models that they say can compete with top US firms.

Driven by an “open-source” approach, where AI start-ups share their code, Chinese innovation has been able to catch up faster than expected, despite US export controls over critical advanced chips. Analysts now believe that the next leg of this race will be determined not by who has the best language model, but who can put this intelligence into millions of machines.

And that is why China is also investing in producing a generation of students learning to imagine what could come next.

At the Hangzhou Technician Institute, for example, children can start from the age of 15. And the scale of what is being taught can feel staggering. There is an entire building dedicated to engines and aeronautics, and a restricted floor for students who will work to keep China at the forefront of processing rare earths – another crucial commodity in the battle with Washington.

Some see this as a solution to China’s stubbornly high youth unemployment rate, with one in five struggling to find a job. “Our students are in demand and can even be pre-booked by companies. They don’t need to worry about employment at all, and we hold competitions as part of their training,” Chen, the young teacher, says.

“It’s better to find your position within the technological wave. In the process of progress, structural changes are bound to occur, and these structural changes are exactly where students’ future employment opportunities lie.”

But China still faces serious economic challenges, from a property crisis that continues to drag on to huge local government debt and persistently low consumption.

August 30, 2026 Posted by Christina Macpherson | China, technology | Leave a comment

Why the FBI is working with China and Russia, despite everything

An unexpected turn is reshaping global security beyond the old rivalriesPublished 11 Aug, 2026 An unexpected turn is reshaping global security beyond the old rivalries

11 Aug, 2026 , RT.com Ladislav Zemánek

In an era defined by fierce geopolitical competition, FBI Director Kash Patel has charted a course that prioritizes pragmatism and results.

By building selective yet substantive law-enforcement partnerships with China and Russia, the bureau is demonstrating that great powers can set aside deeper differences to confront transnational crime that endangers citizens everywhere. This development deserves recognition as a mature, interest-based approach, showing that effective governance in a multipolar world requires the capacity to cooperate wherever it delivers concrete gains.

Breaking the ice with Beijing

Patel’s engagement with his Chinese counterparts marks a clear departure from years of a near-total freeze in high-level law-enforcement contacts. In November 2025, he became the first FBI director to visit China since 2016, meeting Vice Minister of Public Security Xu Datong. He returned in July 2026 for discussions with State Councillor and Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong.

Chinese officials have called for deepening constructive dialogue grounded in mutual respect. According to Patel, the results were made possible by direct engagement under the Trump administration’s leadership. The relationship did not emerge overnight; it followed President Donald Trump’s May 2025 visit to China and subsequent high-level understandings on fentanyl precursors. What matters is that both sides chose to institutionalize the opening rather than allow it to remain a one-off diplomatic gesture.

Institutionalizing daily cooperation

Four dedicated working groups now operate on cyber fraud, violent crimes against children, counternarcotics, and a fugitive task force. Chinese Ministry of Public Security officers travel to FBI facilities in the US on a monthly rotating basis; FBI personnel make reciprocal trips to China. Officials on both sides report near-daily communication – an intensity of contact that had not existed for years.

This steady exchange has already produced operational results. One notable joint action, Operation Sand Dollar, brought together the FBI, China’s Ministry of Public Security, and Dubai police against a major cyber-scam center. The effort yielded roughly 300 arrests, the seizure of approximately $300 million, and the liberation of thousands of trafficked workers. Such outcomes illustrate the practical value of treating certain criminal networks as shared problems rather than exclusive domains of competition.

Patel has been explicit about the philosophy guiding this work. He has noted that the decision to pursue cooperation with China despite widespread advice against it proves what is possible with almost any counterpart: “The fact that we did it with China when everyone said, ‘Don’t do it,’ and, ‘You can’t do it,’ shows what we can do with almost anyone.” The partnerships are deliberately limited to specific categories of transnational crime; they do not pretend to resolve broader strategic disagreements. That clarity of scope makes them sustainable under the current circumstances.

Opening a channel to Moscow

The same pragmatic approach is being applied to Russia. Patel is preparing a visit to Moscow and St. Peterburg, tentatively scheduled for mid-October, with the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) expected to serve as host. The last sitting FBI director known to have traveled to Russia was Robert Mueller in 2013. Patel’s planned trip builds on quieter collaboration already underway for more than a year against violent criminal networks.

This outreach occurs against the backdrop of Trump’s broader effort to reduce tensions with Moscow. Special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have made repeated visits, including meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and further contacts are anticipated. Putin’s special envoy on foreign investment and economic cooperation, Kirill Dmitriev, has publicly welcomed the emerging China-Russia-US intelligence and law-enforcement cooperation, signaling that Moscow sees value in the channel.

Complementary signals across government

Patel’s initiative does not stand alone. Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby, long regarded as a China hardliner, has expressed clear interest in visiting China and revitalizing professional military-to-military ties. Colby’s willingness to explore direct engagement signals an important evolution: Even those most focused on strategic competition now recognize that sustained channels of communication and cooperation on discrete issues can reduce miscalculation risks and open space for practical problem-solving………………………………………………… https://www.rt.com/news/644113-fbi-china-russia-cooperation/

August 15, 2026 Posted by Christina Macpherson | China, Russia, safety, USA | Leave a comment

China makes major nuclear expansion move, adds four new projects in $25 billion energy investment

China’s latest nuclear expansion will also feature the upgraded Hualong One Version 2.0 technology at the Taipingling Nuclear Power Plant in Guangdong Province.

Interesting Engineering, By Bojan Stojkovski, Aug 01, 2026

China is moving forward with a major expansion of its nuclear energy capacity after approving four new power projects expected to attract more than $25 billion in total investment.

The newly approved facilities include Phase II of the Jinqimen Nuclear Power Plant in Zhejiang Province, Phase III of the Taipingling Nuclear Power Plant in Guangdong Province, the Zhuanghe Nuclear Power Plant in Liaoning Province, and the Laiyang Nuclear Power Plant in Shandong Province.

Together, the projects will add eight new nuclear power generating units, according to media reports, as China continues to increase its reliance on nuclear energy as part of its broader energy strategy.

Six-unit nuclear base in Zhejiang with upgraded reactor technology

The Jinqimen Nuclear Power Plant is set to become the fourth nuclear energy base in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, as China continues expanding its low-carbon power infrastructure. The plant’s Phase II development will use Version 2.0 of Hualong One, China’s domestically developed third-generation nuclear reactor technology, while also allowing participation from private capital. ……

China’s latest nuclear expansion will also feature the upgraded Hualong One Version 2.0 technology at the Taipingling Nuclear Power Plant in Guangdong Province, according to CGN Power Co. Each reactor unit at the facility will have a generating capacity of 1,217 megawatts, with the six-unit plant expected to produce more than 55 billion kWh of electricity annually once fully operational.

Meanwhile, the Zhuanghe Nuclear Power Plant in Liaoning Province and the Laiyang Nuclear Power Plant in Shandong Province represent new nuclear development sites, according to statements from the companies involved.

The Laiyang Nuclear Power Plant in Shandong Province will feature two Guohe One reactors, China’s independently developed third-generation nuclear technology, according to SPIC Industry-Finance Holdings Co. Each unit will have a generating capacity of 1,543 megawatts, marking another addition to China’s expanding nuclear power infrastructure.

Moreover, with an investment of around $18 billion, the Laiyang plant is expected to become China’s largest nuclear power station by installed capacity once all six units are completed. The project also marks the beginning of large-scale, standardized construction of Guohe One reactors, China’s independently developed third-generation nuclear technology…………………..https://interestingengineering.com/energy/china-makes-major-nuclear-expansion-move

August 4, 2026 Posted by Christina Macpherson | China, politics | Leave a comment

Can an AI Black Box Be Trusted to Run a Nuclear Reactor?

By Haley Zaremba – Jul 25, 2026, https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Nuclear-Power/Can-an-AI-Black-Box-Be-Trusted-to-Run-a-Nuclear-Reactor.html

China’s Chinese Academy of Sciences unveiled ADANES at WAIC in Shanghai, a five-layer AI system meant to control nuclear reactors from design through decommissioning.
Nuclear officials call full AI integration inevitable, but today’s opaque “black box” large language models clash with the transparency nuclear safety demands.
The push comes as Microsoft, NVIDIA and a wave of U.S. startups race into nuclear power to feed AI’s soaring energy needs, sometimes outpacing safety oversight.

China has unveiled a daring new plan to integrate artificial intelligence throughout the nuclear energy life cycle. This week, at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) revealed a new plan for safely integrating artificial intelligence into the nuclear sector, called ADANES – the Accelerator-Driven Advanced Nuclear Energy System. The system “fundamentally changes the safety logic that governs conventional nuclear reactors” and marks a major turning point in the AI revolution as well as the global nuclear renaissance.

While nuclear disasters are historically rare, their potential fallout is massive. But there is potential for artificial intelligence to lessen this risk. According to Interesting Engineering, “Disasters like Chernobyl and Fukushima have reminded us time and again, that the risk of an accident remains with this technology, and we need to prepare for the worst scenarios. A technology like AI is well suited for this role as it can process large number of signals coming in from an operational reactor and shut it down in the earliest stages of a mishap.”

Wang Shoujun, the president of the Chinese Nuclear Society, makes the argument that the integration of large language models into every corner of the economy, including nuclear energy, is an inevitability. By accepting this as fact, the scientists behind the ADANES believe that the responsible thing to do is get ahead of the trend and focus on planning and safety measures, rather than trying to prevent AI from infiltrating the nuclear power sector. Wang says that, through the use of ADANES, “AI will play a core role throughout the full life cycle of nuclear energy by improving quality, efficiency and safety.”

However, today’s large language models operate under great opacity, and this ‘black box’ functionality is fundamentally at odds with stringent nuclear energy safety requirements. We need a far greater level of transparency and a deeper understanding of how large language models work and will be applied in this context. According to a recent report from China Daily, ADANES can be used to establish such an understanding.

“The AI architecture consists of five layers — a unified data infrastructure, physics-native world models, physical-system control, intelligent-agent coordination and continuous evolution — embedding AI throughout the system’s full life cycle, from design and commissioning to operation and maintenance,” the report states. China is also developing a national-scale supportive infrastructure to provide an “engineering verification platform” for ADANES in order to shore up the long-term stability and viability of the system.

It’s true that the artificial intelligence boom is already finding its way into the nuclear energy sector in various ways and to varying degrees. Earlier this year, tech giants Microsoft and NVIDIA announced that they are jointly rolling out an AI-powered toolkit designed to cut down on arduous permitting, design, and engineering processes that have made new nuclear plants notoriously slow and expensive to build in the United States.

Ushering in a new digital era for nuclear power, the toolkit “provides end-to-end tools that combine AI and digital twins for creating faster iterative design and engineering solutions,” according to a March report from Interesting Engineering. “Licensing and permitting is handled by Generative AI for document drafting and gap analysis.”

Furthermore, the push to develop new and advanced nuclear energy generation capacity is also being largely driven by the AI boom. Silicon Valley is getting increasingly involved in funding and developing next-gen nuclear technologies in order to fuel the rapidly growing energy demands of generative AI, which are projected to far outstrip energy additions unless we make some major breakthroughs. China is not the only nation making unsettlingly daring decisions when it comes to nuclear power. A wave of U.S.-based startups is also eagerly crowding into the sector with concerning disregard for safety measures, creating a concerning security environment in the world’s largest economies.

July 29, 2026 Posted by Christina Macpherson | China, technology | Leave a comment

« Previous Entries