An artist's impression of the Ninh Thuan 1 Nuclear Power Plant |
Deputy Minister Tien also said that Vietnam would ink a loan agreement with Japan in 2012 to start work on the second nuclear power plant in Ninh Thuan Province.
In related news, the fourth meeting of the 11th Party Central Committee has issued a resolution on infrastructure construction including developing electricity plants of 1,000MW upward and renewable sources of energy like wind power would also take priority under the resolution.
The Ninh Thuan I and Ninh Thuan II nuclear power plants would be operational by 2020 and have the capacity to generate 10,700MW by 2030.
According to VNS, the resolution sets the highest priority on transport, energy, irrigation, and urban development projects, as well as projects needed to address the impacts of climate change.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has reaffirmed Vietnam's determination to build a nuclear power plant to cope with serious power shortages in the upcoming years.
As planned, works on the plant will be started in 2014 and the plant will supply electricity to the whole nation in 2020.
Russia has been selected as the supplier of technologies for the future nuclear power plant in Ninh Thuan province.
Unlike the Fukushima plant, where the active safety basis is applied, the future nuclear plant in Ninh Thuan has the passive (automatic) safety features, says Prof. Vuong Huu Tan, head of the Vietnam Nuclear Energy Institute.
That means when the future Vietnam plant faces an incident similar to that in Fukushima, the Vietnamese plant will automatically be made cool by an automatic cooling system within 72 hours without any interference from the operator or any additional source, explains Prof. Tan.
During the 12th ministerial meeting of the Forum on Nuclear Cooperation in Asia (FNCA) in Tokyo last month, Deputy Minister Tien said that Vietnam allocates top priority to safety in its nuclear energy development policy.
“We understand that nuclear power is a clean energy source with no carbon dioxide emissions and it could be considered a feasible option to meet the country’s demand for energy,” he was quoted by VNA as saying.
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