Search Asia Times

Advanced Search
 
Southeast Asia

Vietnam, France sign nuclear power deal

HANOI - Vietnam and France on Wednesday signed an agreement on nuclear cooperation for peaceful purposes.

Nguyen Xuan Thuy, Vietnam's Deputy Minister of Industry, and a representative of France's Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industry signed the document, according to which Paris pledged to support Vietnam in developing its fledgling nuclear technology.

France displayed a stand at an exhibition on nuclear power technology in Hanoi on Wednesday, igniting hope for increased access to electricity through the Vietnamese nuclear industry.

Five countries among the world's leading nuclear electricity producers - India, France, Japan, South Korea and Russia -attended the exhibition.

They outlined their experience in radioactive waste management, methods of operating a nuclear reactor and safe storage of radioactivity material and the advantages of a nuclear power plant.

"Vietnam is preparing to build its first nuclear power plant in the central coast by 2020," the director of the Vietnam Atomic Energy Commission, Vuong Huu Tan said. The nuclear power plant is expected to have a capacity of 2,000 to 4,000 milliwatts.

Demand for electricity is expected to grow by 13 percent each year until 2010, and by 8 to 9 percent between 2011 and 2020.

It is estimated that Vietnam will lack 8 billion kilowatt hours (KWh) by 2015 and between 36 billion and 65 billion KWh by 2020.

(Asia Pulse/VNA)


May 28, 2004


 
         
         
No material from Asia Times Online may be republished in any form without written permission.
Copyright 2003, Asia Times Online, 4305 Far East Finance Centre, 16 Harcourt Rd, Central, Hong Kong