A few weeks ago, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin gave the official "go ahead" for construction to begin on four new nuclear reactors in China. They're joint Sino-Russian project in the peaceful usage of atomic energy. Our Aljoša Milenković is in Moscow, where he spoke with the Russian nuclear scientists and officials about what that cooperation means for Russia. 

This is Evgeny Pakermanov, head of Russia's main exporter of nuclear energy technology, the Rusatom Overseas, a part of Rosatom – the Rosatom, State Nuclear Energy Corporation. He has extensive experience collaborating with his Chinese colleagues in all aspects of joint projects in the industry.

EVGENY PAKERMANOV President, Rusatom Overseas "This collaboration presents us with absolutely colossal possibilities. The Chinese partners are providing the rhythm. They are building fast. They build with quality. The reactors we've built together are the most successful, the most effective, and everybody has recognized it."

Sino-Russian collaboration in peaceful usage of nuclear energy started three decades ago. Now, many reactors built with Russian technology can be found throughout China. With the nuclear power plant in Tianwan being the largest and the most important one.

ALIJOSA MILENKOVIC Moscow "But, that's not where the collaboration ends. Experts say that the future of nuclear energy lies in fusion reactors. And scientists from both countries are working closely together in this area too."

The ITER fusion reactor is a project in which both sides are cooperating with scientists from many other countries. The multi-billion-dollar project will be the testing ground for many future nuclear technologies which participating countries could use for their own – individual projects. Among those are the Russian's latest nuclear fusion testbed, the tokamak T-15MD in Moscow, and the Chinese tokamak device named EAST in Hefei.

ANATOLY KRASILNIKOV Director, Project Center ITER Rosatom "We've had very good cooperation with fusion scientist teams from Hefei and Chengdu. And, some of our Russian equipment is now being used in Chinese experiments."

One of those groundbreaking experiments took place on May 28th, at the aforementioned EAST located in Hefei. For 101 seconds, Chinese scientists successfully held the temperature of the plasma at over 120 million degrees, something no human has ever achieved previously. Their Russian colleagues in Moscow are proud to have participated in this, and many other joint nuclear energy breakthroughs. Aljoša Milenković, CGTN, Moscow.