By Bernama,
Hanoi : Vietnam’s National Assembly, the country’s top legislature, is expected to approve a law on nuclear energy in May, paving the way for its first nuclear power plant with capacity of 4,000 mw worth US$6 billion, China’s XINHUA news agency quoted a local newspaper on Monday.
If the law was approved, Vietnam would be able to start taking measures to ensure nuclear energy security, the newspaper quoted Vuong Huu Tan, head of the Vietnam Atomic Energy Commission, as saying.
As planned, construction of the four-turbine power plant would start in 2015, the first turbine would come into operation by 2020, and the plant would be fully operational five years later.
Though Vietnam was facing a serious electricity shortage, the country could not speed up the nuclear power project because it needed time to prepare sufficient facilities, human resources, technology and legal documents, Tan said.
Another hurdle is that Vietnam still lacks human resources for the nuclear sector because for many years, it has not focused on training on the field.
The plant would be built in southern Ninh Thuan province because its geology and topographical position is suitable for the transport of materials, he said. Also, the southern region has higher electricity consumption than the northern one.
According to the Electricity Vietnam (EVN), the country’s biggest electricity producer and sole distributor, by 2025, nuclear power would account for only 10 percent of the country’s total electricity output.
From now to 2015, Vietnam needs to invest in many new electricity plants with total capacity of 58,500 mw.
To this end, the Vietnamese government has asked the state-owned economic group EVN to invest in 25 plants in the period.
Now, EVN and other enterprises are building 45 electricity plants with combined capacity of nearly 14,600 mw, the newspaper said.
Along with power-saving measures, EVN has urged organizations and individuals to boost the efficiency of electricity usage by replacing high-energy consuming and out-of-date equipment, and using alternative sources like solar energy.