U.S. dollar ticks up

The U.S. dollar climbed in late trading on Friday.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, gained 0.14 percent to 99.298 at 3 p.m. (2000 GMT).

In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.1618 dollars from 1.1635 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound was down to 1.3165 dollars from 1.3190 U.S. dollars in the previous session.

The U.S. dollar bought 154.56 Japanese yen, higher than 154.47 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar added to 0.7940 Swiss francs from 0.7927 Swiss francs, and it decreased to 1.4026 Canadian dollars from 1.4033 Canadian dollars. The U.S. dollar rose to 9.4584 Swedish kronor from 9.3983 Swedish kronor.

Highlighting the "Future Energy" as a key direction for China's strategic emerging industries, the country's nuclear energy development, guided by its three-step strategy, has seen major strides in the past year, said a member of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

In a recent press briefing, Xin Feng, also deputy general manager of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), updated the media on the progresses China has achieved under the strategy.

"China's three-step strategy for nuclear energy development -- from the thermal reactor to the fast reactor and the fusion reactor -- was formulated in 1983 as a medium- and long-term plan. For the thermal reactor, over the past year, our 2.0 version of the Hualong One technology has been approved. This is a unified and fully self-owned intellectual property based third-generation nuclear power technology solution. And the Linglong One small modular reactor also successfully completed its cold-state functional test last year and is expected to be put into commercial operation this year," he said.

For the second and third steps, Chinese researchers and engineers have achieved milestones in the past year with the government support, Xin noted.

"Then for the fast reactor, last year, a closed-cycle system for an integral fast reactor successfully achieved preliminary standard design. We will continue to solve its engineering technology challenges. As for the fusion reactor, in 2025, with national support, we established the China Fusion Energy Company in Shanghai. And our Huanliu-3, a platform for conducting research and development of fusion technology, made a big stride, with an iron temperature in it achieving 117 million Celsius and an electron temperature reaching 160 million Celsius. We will continue to adhere to the development strategy and focus on technological research and engineering technology development," Xin said.

The fourth session of the 14th NPC and the fourth session of the 14th National Committee of the CPPCC kicked off in Beijing on March 5 and March 4, respectively.

The "two sessions" -- which refer to the annual meetings of China's supreme organ of state power, the National People's Congress (NPC), and its top political advisory body, the National Committee of the CPPCC -- are a key event on the country's political calendar and offer a window into the country's development direction.