Vietnam is likely to take a step to meet its increasing appetite for electricity by paving the way for its first nuclear power plant, but argument is still raging over the controversial project, AFP reported. Vietnam's parliament is set to vote on the project at the end of November 2009, which lawmakers have been mulling for more than a decade, after legalizing the use of nuclear power in 2008.
Vietnam’s atomic energy commission estimates that nuclear power could meet as much as 30% of the nation’s power needs by the middle of the century, compared with less than 5% initially.
But environmental and security concerns have prompted some experts to ask if the government is already moving too fast.
“You can’t look at nuclear power plants as you would at cars and just buy them as soon as possible,” said Pham Duy Hien, chairman of scientific council at Vietnam’s Agency for Nuclear Safety.
The present plan of Vietnam is construction of reactors on two sites with a total capacity of 4,000 MW, at an estimated cost between $11 billion to $18 billion.
The construction of the reactor in southern province of Ninh Thuan would begin from around 2014, with at least one reactor coming on line in 2020.
The nuclear legislation, the subject of heated debate in parliament, also has experts alarmed as it lacks provisions to regulate the disposal of potentially hazardous nuclear waste.
“The quantity of radioactivity in the waste products after 10 years will be enormous,” if the government sticks to its timetable for the power plant construction, said Hien.
Hien said as with any nuclear programme, even a peaceful one, there is always a risk sensitive material could fall into the wrong hands particularly taking into account endemic corruption in Vietnam.
The Vietnamese Union of Science and Technology Associations have urged the Vietnam government to be flexible about the 2020 deadline, saying it should begin with just one power plant.
Ninh Thuan local officials have voiced concerns about the project’s environmental impact, specially on the area’s fishing communities.
Lawmaker Nguyen Minh Thuyet has reported Vietnam to take a step-by-step approach to joining the nuclear energy club, but said the project had broad backing.
“Lots of people support the project because they think Vietnam is going to suffer a severe energy shortage,” Thuyet said.
Demand is increasing about 15% annually as Vietnam enjoys an economic boom, and heavy industries like the construction sector are big energy-consumers.
Vietnam has significant hydrocarbon reserves, but only one operational refinery. It is considering exploiting new coal reserves but this would need sacrificing large swathes of rice paddy fields.
“But a peaceful nuclear power industry is very complicated technology, and requires disciplined management,” said Hien, urging the goverment to consider how to improve its overall energy efficiency.
“In Vietnam, we have only just started the process of industrialisation.”
In spite of the domestic debates, various foreign nations have expressed interest in a role in the project including France, as well as Japan, Russia, China and to a lesser extent South Korea and US.
French Prime Minister Francois Fillon and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Tan Dung have signed a nuclear cooperation pact but Dung and did not say whether which nation would be selected as Vietnam’s main nuclear partner.
“The project is still being examined by the National Assembly. At the moment, we have no official decision… I do not want to anticipate what concrete actions will be taken ahead of the decision,” Dung said.