On a bright winter morning, veteran pearl farmer He Hanyong gently pried open a silver-lipped oyster. Inside, nestled against the iridescent mother-of-pearl, lay something extraordinary — not just an organic gem, but a symbol of an unlikely marriage between ecology and industry.

“Look,” he whispered, carefully extracting a perfectly formed, 18-millimetre pearl under the tropical sun of Hainan province.

The location of this cluster of pearl shells is anything but ordinary. It is near the discharge outlet of the Hainan Changjiang Nuclear Power Base — China’s southernmost nuclear facility — where nationally protected silver-lipped pearl oysters are now thriving in waters warmed by the plant’s cooling systems.

“Silver-lipped pearl oysters need clean water with abundant nutrition,” said He, who is also head of the Hainan Qianzumeiji Pearl project in the Changjiang Li autonomous county. “The thermal discharge zone creates perfect conditions — stable temperature, clean water, plenty of food.”

Against all expectations, the waters near the plant became a sanctuary for a species that had nearly vanished from the Chinese mainland’s coastal waters due to industrial development.

“It started almost by accident,” said Xu Chunsong, director of the environmental emergency department at the Hainan Nuclear Power Co. “We wanted to introduce species that could help purify water by reducing algae. We chose the silver-lipped pearl oyster. The results have been a pleasant surprise.”

After more than two years of experimental cultivation, scientists and pearl farmers have mastered the technology of raising these sensitive molluscs in the facility’s outflow waters. The largest pearls reach 18 millimetres in diameter, with a lustre that rivals anything produced in traditional farms.

Yet inevitably, a question arises: Do pearls grown near a nuclear plant have radiation?

“The answer is definitely no,” said Xu. “Our environmental monitoring team continuously tracks conditions around the plant, sampling both land and marine organisms for analysis. Radiation levels remain exactly the same as before the plant was built.”

This innovative project represents just one example of a broader transformation. Just several miles from the pearl oyster farm, the world’s first onshore commercial small modular reactor, Linglong One, rises against the sky. The reactor is nearing completion, with installation 90 per cent complete.

“We are in the final stage,” said Wei Zhigang, chairman of the Hainan Nuclear Power Co. “Linglong One took more than a decade of development.”

Upon completion, the reactor will generate 1 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, sufficient to power 526,000 households while reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 880,000 metric tonnes. Designed by China National Nuclear Corp, Linglong One is the first onshore commercial SMR to pass a safety review by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

“It’s like the evolution from desktop computers to laptops,” Wei said. “Traditional large reactors are like desktop computers with separate components. Linglong One is an all-in-one laptop — compact, convenient and safe.”

By next year, nuclear energy is expected to account for more than 50 per cent of Hainan’s power mix. Just as important is the vision for nuclear energy’s role in powering the digital future. As artificial intelligence triggers unprecedented demand for computing power, the need for vast, stable electricity supplies has become the ultimate constraint.

“We are seeing strong demand from major power users like computing centres,” Wei said. “One of the key advantages of SMRs is their flexible placement. We can deploy them right where computing power is needed.”

Wei’s company is exploring building a nuclear-powered zero-carbon industrial park in Hainan’s Changjiang, aiming to create a “nuclear energy plus computing power” pilot zone.

The pearl cultivation project is evidence that technology and nature — when properly integrated — can achieve more together than apart, experts said. Innovations such as growing rubber on saline land or herding sheep under solar panels are increasingly common in places such as the Xinjiang Uygur and Ningxia Hui autonomous regions and Gansu and Qinghai provinces.

Wang Shancheng, head of the department of resource conservation and environmental protection at the National Development and Reform Commission, said China’s green development has achieved remarkable milestones.

“The 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) period marks a critical phase in advancing high-quality economic and social development,” Wang said.