Sanmen Nuclear Power Company recognized as 'Lighthouse Factory,' the first awardee in the global nuclear power industry

Nuclear industry digitalization is advancing at full speed and has come to fruition again! On October 8, local time, the World Economic Forum announced on its official website the latest list of "Lighthouse Factory" enterprises. Among these, Sanmen Nuclear Power Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of China National Nuclear Power Company (CNNP, stock code: 601985), stood out from thousands of candidate factories worldwide, becoming the first selected enterprise both in both the global nuclear power industry, and China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) to receive this honor.

The title of "Lighthouse Factory" is awarded to the world's top performers in "Industry 4.0 technology application" and "digital manufacturing," regarded as leaders of the fourth industrial revolution through rigorous evaluation. It represents the pinnacle of high technology, strong innovation capability, high productivity, good economic benefits, and green and low-carbon development, reflecting the highest level of intelligent manufacturing and digital technology. Lighthouse factories are characterized by a high degree of automation, data-driven decision-making, and rapid adoption of emerging technologies to optimize production processes, reduce costs, and improve output quality. The successful award of "Lighthouse Factory" means that Sanmen Nuclear Power has integrated the cutting-edge technologies of the fourth industrial revolution to R&D, production, management, and service.

The CNNC leaders have attached great importance to digital transformation over the years, as a key strategy to improve core competitiveness and build a world-leading nuclear industry corporation, thus contributing to China's position as a global leader in nuclear energy. This vision is being pursued by closely following the application of advanced digital technologies, recruiting and maintaining digital professionals, and exploring innovative digital transformation models. Under the overall coordination of the CNNC, CNNP aims to create a "fully perceptive and intelligently operated" digital nuclear power plant, establish a business, data and industrial chain covering the whole life cycle of nuclear power and promoting the transformation and upgrading of the digital nuclear power industry ecosystem. By concentrating on the design of core business scenarios, end-to-end integration of key processes, and the strategic coordination of cross-domain data, CNNP seeks to continuously optimize production, operation, and management models, ensuring both operational excellence and superior management practices in the global nuclear power industry.

Located in Sanmen county, Zhejiang Province, the Sanmen Nuclear Power project plans to build six third-generation nuclear power units with a capacity of 1 million kW. Phase I of unit 1 and 2 has been completed for commercial operation, Phase II of unit 3 and 4 is under construction, and Phase III of unit 5 and 6 is under preparation. After the completion of all 6 units, the total installed capacity will be over 7 million kW, and the annual power generation capacity can reach up to 60 billion kWh, equivalent to an annual emission reduction of 45 million tons of carbon dioxide. The Sanmen Nuclear Power Plant is an important force to assist the local Zhejiang Province in building a demonstrative province of clean energy, and guarantee national energy security and the achievement of carbon neutrality.

Scientific and technological innovation is an inevitable choice for Sanmen Nuclear Power Company to cultivate high quality development. Relying on the construction, operation and maintenance of the world's first third-generation nuclear power unit, the company has taken CNNP's top-level planning of digital transformation as a guide and committed to scientific and technological innovation to optimize various business processes through digitalization, improving production efficiency and management effectiveness. In order to promote the overall development of digital intelligence in the nuclear power plants, various methods have been applied, including data driven decision-making to achieve accurate management and operation, introduction of advanced technology and application of advanced digital solutions to build a smart power plant, the creation of a solid foundation for cyber security, the cultivation of digital culture, and industry innovation. Meanwhile, pursuing the goals of "intelligent engineering, intelligent operation, intelligent maintenance, intelligent equipment, intelligent management and intelligent plant," the company will lead the establishment of digital intelligence through new technologies such as big data, intelligent robots and virtual reality. This will also ensure the high safety, reliability and economic performance of the power plant as well as a continuous optimization of such indicators as capacity factor, overhaul duration, overall labor productivity and cost per unit of electricity. In turn, this will promote the overall development of the domestic nuclear power industry.

Looking to the future, Sanmen Nuclear Power Company remains committed to its responsibilities and missions, carrying forward the spirit of the nuclear industry, while fostering high quality development. The company will actively expand the application of digitalization in nuclear power design, manufacturing, construction, operation and other scenarios, vigorously push forward the research and development of key core technologies, and establish and improve a modern governance system suited to the demands of digitalization transformation, to further empowering the industry. The company will make every effort to build a nuclear power base integrating two different kinds of third-generation units and turning the plant into a "Charming Nuclear Power, Energetic Sanmen" site, facilitating the implementation of nuclear energy's "three-step" strategy, and making greater contributions to the construction of Chinese modernization.