Vietnam Sends 2,000 Nuclear Workers to Russia and Japan for Project Training

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Vietnam's national power development plan for 2011-20 and its plans reaching to 2030 call for a total of 10 nuclear reactors to be built, with the first completed by 2020. Russia's AtomStroyExport (Rosatom) (Moscow) will build the country's first four nuclear reactors at Phuoc Dinh (Ninh Thuan 1), each with a capacity of 1,000 megawatts (MW). Russia also would provide the majority of funding for the project, according to a November 2011 agreement.

Under that agreement, Russia agreed to provide additional support, such as training and fuel services, including the construction of a nuclear science and technology center and spent fuel take-back.

Japan also has agreed to construct the second plant (Ninh Thuan 2) and will provide additional training and assistance for AtomStroyExport's project.

Starting in 2013, the Vietnamese conglomerate Song Da Corporation (SDC) (Hanoi) will send 2,000 workers and engineers to Russia and Japan for training to equip the workers with skills to man the two plants. In February, SDC signed a contract to send Vietnamese workers to Russia to build the Rostov nuclear power plant. Some workers already were sent for training starting in 2011.

The Ninh Thuan 1 plant will be owned and operated by Vietnam's state-owned power company EVN. Fuel will be supplied by Rosatom, which also will reprocess used fuel. Construction is set to start in 2014, with the first unit to be commissioned in 2020. Unit 2 will be commissioned in 2021, Unit 3 in 2023 and Unit 4 in 2024. Some doubts have been expressed in official circles as to whether this schedule can be met in terms of the supply of human skills and scarce resources.

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