On the sidelines of the workshop on "Nuclear power infrastructure development,” Vietnam Business Forum has an interview with Mr Nguyen Quan, Minister of Science and Technology, to learn about preparatory work for nuclear power development in Vietnam, particularly the construction of the country’s first power plant in Ninh Thuan province in 2015. Anh Phuong reports.
How has the Government quantified energy security development strategy, including atomic power?
Currently, Vietnam is using nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. The Vietnamese government will carry out nuclear power programmes on the basis of developing some national infrastructure items studied, invested and developed towards sustainability and environmental friendliness. These infrastructures are the State guarantee for legal and institutional aspects as well as technological management and senior personnel training for the national nuclear power programme. Accordingly, Vietnam strictly complies with international documents and nuclear safety standards recognised by international community, security guidelines, and requirements of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
However, it is noted that Vietnam is initiating a nuclear power programme when its necessary infrastructures for the implementation of nuclear power projects, from needed equipment to legal framework, human resources and finance, are at a low level. Therefore, Vietnam needs support and assistance from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and other international organisations in the world.
How is Vietnam’s cooperation in nuclear power programme development with the world going?
Vietnam’s consistent standpoint in nuclear power development cooperation with international organisations is that Vietnam always attaches importance to strengthening and expanding cooperation with the IAEA and countries with advanced nuclear power industry like Russia and Japan. These are the key factors for Vietnam to successfully implement the project to build and operate its first nuclear power plant.
As regards the cooperation programme with the IAEA, the agency has provided much support for Vietnam like highly qualified technician training, technological research, safety analysis and evaluation, fuel processing cycle, radiation treatment, environmental protection, equipment supply and software transfer. Particularly from 2009 to 2011, the IAEA aided Vietnam with technical cooperation projects for nuclear power infrastructure development; and enhanced technical capacity of regulatory agencies in nuclear and radiation safety. These projects will continue in 2012 and 2013. In addition, the IAEA helped Vietnam build nuclear security integration plans and national nuclear power infrastructure integration plans.
Personnel is the key to develop this science. How has Vietnam prepared personnel?
To serve this super project, the Government established two national steering committees. One is led by Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai, and another responsible for human resources is chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan. Vietnam is facing a lot of difficulties in attracting, training and searching human resources for nuclear power development as we have not made known the incentives and career pride of this field. Besides, selecting qualified personnel for training is also more difficult than in other sectors, because they are always placed under some risk when they study to operate the plant in the future. Personnel selection for this sector is extremely rigorous.
In the past time, Vietnam has also worked very closely with Japan, South Korea, the United States and France to train young engineers. In the past three years, Vietnam has sent 200 people to Russia and about 200-300 people to other countries to study both short-term and long-term nuclear energy and nuclear power.
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Alexander Bychkov, IAEA Deputy Director General in charge of nuclear energy
Currently, many countries are pursuing nuclear power development in spite of witnessing nuclear accidents at the Fukushima reactors in Japan. The demand for nuclear energy is growing higher. The IAEA also promised to continue priority support for Vietnam to build and develop nuclear power development programmes in two phases: 2009 - 2011 and 2012 - 2013. In the first phase, it received US$580,000 from ODA sources and supplemented US$560,000 by Peaceful Use Initiative Foundation. The IAEA will grant over US$500,000 in the second phase. |
Would you be kind enough to talk more about preference policies for workers of the nuclear power industry?
To date, the Government has agreed in principle to allow people working in nuclear power and nuclear environment to enjoy allowances equalling 30-70 percent of current salary.
Especially, reactor operators will be granted worthwhile pays for their jobs when they work in an environment with potential risk of contact with highly radioactive substances. Hence, their proposed pay is higher than those paid to ministers.
At present, the Government has spent about VND2,000 billion on nuclear power training. The Electricity of Vietnam Group (EVN) also expended VND1,000 billion on training technical and operational workers.
And, the Government also initiated long-term training programmes. It tasked five major universities to train nuclear engineers who will be sent to foreign countries for further study. Currently, Vietnam is building a US$500 million centre for nuclear power science and technology funded by Russia. Besides, domestic institutions like the Atomic Energy Institute under the Ministry of Science and Technology, universities and research institutes are quickly implementing nuclear power development programmes.
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