Nuclear Safety
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We have an excellent safety track record consistently in line with advanced international standards. As of the Latest Practicable Date, we have not experienced incidents at or above level 2 on the INES (i.e., incidents involving significant failure in safety provisions but with sufficient defense-in-depth to cope with additional failures). Since 1999 and through 2015, our nuclear power generating units at Daya Bay Station and Ling’ao Nuclear Power Station received a total of 34 first prizes in a number of categories at EDF safety challenge contests, competing with more than 60 similar generating units from countries such as France, China, Germany and South Africa. As of June 30, 2014, unit 1 at our Daya Bay Station had recorded 4,203 consecutive days of safe operations without unplanned reactor shutdowns, the longest among nuclear power generating units in the PRC.
Nuclear safety is the bedrock of the nuclear industry. We believe that “Only a safe nuclear power station can be economical” and have always upheld “Safety First” as our highest priority. By importing and implementing the world’s advanced safety management experience, we have established and applied the following safety management systems and standards to all of our nuclear power stations.
• Defense-in-depth nuclear safety management system: We follow the principles of defense-in-depth and multiple redundancies in nuclear power station design, equipment layout, safety measures, equipment measurement, management systems and employee performance.
• Nuclear safety culture for all employees: We have established a top-down nuclearsafety culture and foster a safety philosophy that emphasizes “Doing Things Right in One Go” and “Everyone Is A Safety Barrier.” In order to develop a culture focused on safety precautions, the general manager and department heads of each nuclear power station lecture on major and representative incidents in the nuclear power industry in the PRC or abroad, hold safety and quality assurance meetings, conduct regular site inspection and promote the adoption of safety culture assessment indices. All employees are required to participate in these initiatives and strictly observe relevant procedures.
• Independent safety supervision system: We have a nuclear safety supervision and assessment department at our corporate headquarters supervising and assessing the safety of all nuclear power stations that we operate and manage. We also have an Independent Nuclear Safety Supervision and Evaluation Center, which reports directly to our President, and is separate and independent from our operational teams. In addition, we work with each of the nuclear power stations that we operate and manage to formulate and implement safety improvements. We also have systems at each nuclear power station to promote nuclear safety, quality control and occupational safety.
• Experience feedback system: We have established a system, supported by a transparency measurement index system, which encourages reports of nuclear incidents both to the management team and the supervisory team. We centrally manage all feedback on operation incidents, analyze the reasons for each incident and deviation, take corresponding remedial measures and consolidate and promote best practices across our nuclear power stations.
• Nuclear emergency response and management system: We have a full-coverage emergency management system focusing on nuclear emergency response, a multi-layered emergency defense mechanism and professional emergency response facilities and support team. We also conduct frequent emergency response drills.
We believe that our full commitment to safety helps us ensure our long-term, stable development and continuous improvement of our operating results.