31 Mar (NucNet): A new agreement “opens the door” for increased cooperation between the US and Vietnam in civil nuclear energy activities, the US State Department has announced.
A memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed in Hanoi yesterday paves the way for further cooperation in areas such as access to “reliable sources of nuclear fuel” and the management of radioactive waste and spent fuel, the State Department said.
US ambassador to Vietnam Michael Michalak and Vietnam’s vice-minister of science and technology Le Dinh Tien signed the MOU.
The State Department said president Barack Obama had also invited Vietnam’s prime minister, Nguyen Tan Dung, to attend a nuclear security summit meeting hosted by the US in Washington next month.
Both countries are working towards fully converting Vietnam’s research reactor at the Dalat Nuclear Research Institute from highly-enriched uranium (HEU) to low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel and returning the HEU spent fuel to Russia by the end of 2012. The US said it also looks forward to a “joint effort” on deploying radiation detection equipment at Vietnam’s major seaports.
In November 2009, Vietnam’s National Assembly approved a resolution to build the country’s first two commercial nuclear reactor units, each with an installed capacity of 2,000 megawatts, in the southern province of Ninh Thuan. Construction of the first unit is expected to start in 2014 so that it would be operational in 2020.
>>Related reports in the NucNet database (available to subscribers)
US Signs Agreement To Help Vietnam Prepare For Nuclear Energy (News No. 209, 13 September 2007)
Vietnam Approves Proposals For First Two Commercial Nuclear Units (News in Brief No. 152, 25 November 2009)
