Abstract: Steel cylinder of the containment was one of the most important structure modules of AP1000 Nuclear Plant.Its characteristics such as large size, heavy weight, thin wall together with the accuracy requirements of installation resulted in the difficulty of lifting.A new lifting method for this large-scale, thin-wall components was put forward: lifting without beam.When using this method, there were three main factors affecting the lifting: the number of slings, the position of lug and the height of the distributor.The finite-element-analysis software ANSYS was used to simulate the lifting.The influence regularity of these three main factors were obtained.It was shown that the deformation and the equivalent stress of the cylinder would be smaller when using more slings, keeping the lugs closer to cylinder's horizontal axis, and the distributor was higher.Compared with the present lifting method, the new method can enhance the crane's actual lifting capacity effectively and reduce the overall load on foundation by removing the heavy octagonal beam.In addition, the new method reduces the deformation at cylinder's edge, therefore reduces the difficulty of abutment between adjacent modules significantly.