Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev laid out a picture to Russian journalists on Friday of expanding cooperation between Russia and China, spanning nuclear energy and Arctic logistics, describing the two countries’ partnership in peaceful nuclear energy as “deep, strategic, and exemplary both in form and substance.”
As reported by TASS, Likhachev said Rosatom will begin supplying China in 2026 with its most advanced nuclear fuel for VVER-1200 reactors, alongside fuel for fast neutron reactors, as it continues localizing fuel fabrication technologies in China to meet the country’s growing demand. He pointed to the joint and simultaneous construction of the Tianwan and Xudapu nuclear power plants as “unprecedented and exemplary cooperation on a global scale,” noting that Tianwan will become the world’s largest nuclear plant once Units 7 and 8 come online—eight gigawatt-class units generating 9 GW of clean electricity. Commissioning of the first new VVER-1200 units at both sites is expected within weeks, with Unit 8 at Tianwan and Unit 4 at Xudapu following in 2027. Russia also supplies up to 80% of China’s market for certain scarce radiopharmaceutical isotopes.
Likhachev also addressed the issue of nuclear fusion, emphasizing that Russian and Chinese technologies in controlled nuclear fusion will complement each other going forward. He credited China with substantial developments and operational facilities in the field, saying they will “enrich” joint Russia-China fusion work as the two countries move ahead together—an acknowledgment of how far China’s fusion program has advanced in recent years.
On the Arctic front, Likhachev said that Rosatom and China have major joint plans to develop Arctic shipbuilding, highlighting the rapid growth in joint shipping along the Northern Sea Route. In 2025, Rosatom transported 5 million metric tons of Chinese cargo along the route—about 15% of total traffic. Likhachev projected cargo volumes from China could nearly double in 2026, with more than 30 container shipping voyages expected, and said Moscow and Beijing aim to at least double Northern Sea Route cargo traffic again by 2030, adding that “something tells me we will reach these figures much sooner because demand has increased sharply in recent months.”
