Vietnam’s first nuclear power may be unable to start running in 2020 as scheduled, said Dr. Tran Dai Phuc, a senior Vietnamese French nuclear expert who is teaching Vietnam’s key nuclear engineers at the invitation of the Vietnamese government, in an interview with Tien Phong newspaper.
Why do you think so?
Countries that use nuclear power all have an independent agency on nuclear safety. This agency is independent in making decisions in all circumstances, from building to operating nuclear powers. Vietnam must not be an exception.
However, Vietnam currently has only the Nuclear Radiation Safety Bureau, under the management of the Ministry of Science and Technology. This agency is not a national body, so it cannot effectively appraise the safety and supervise the construction and operation process of the nuclear power plants.
Moreover, the Nuclear Radiation Safety Bureau has only 80 employees, including only 30 who have basic knowledge of the nuclear technology. I’m teaching this group of 30 people. They are very young. Some of them are newly graduates who were trained at home and overseas for several months or several years.
But if they study 4-5 years overseas and return home with university diplomas on nuclear technology, they only study theory and on physics or hydrodynamics while there are tens of fields related to atomic reactors.
In Europe, Russia and the USA, people who work in the nuclear industry must have at least 8-13 years of experience. France’s nuclear experts increased from 85 in 1975 to 1,800 in 1986. France could train such a number of nuclear experts because it already has a good scientific-technological foundation, while Vietnam has nothing. From now to 2020, Vietnam must have at least 500 people who work in the nuclear safety sector. It is very difficult.
Therefore, the schedule to put the first nuclear power plant into operation in 2020 is unfeasible.
If the plant runs behind schedule, will it cause losses for Vietnam?
Vietnam may have to hire foreign experts or foreign organizations to evaluate its nuclear safety documents related to the nuclear power plants’ location and design. For example, Vietnam may have to pay Eur1,800-2,500 per day for a foreign expert who works at its nuclear power plants. If it prolongs, it will be very costly. Thus, technology transfer and update of the nuclear power plants will be slow.
In that situation, what should Vietnam do?
Training is very important. During 45 years evaluating safety documents of the designs of nuclear power plants in Finland, Japan, Germany, the USA, etc. and participated in supervisory trips to these countries, I have collected many documents which are not provided at universities.
Curriculars used at universities in the world are basic programs for nuclear physics. If Vietnamese people are trained there, when they return, they can only learn general knowledge, not experience to be able to appraise safety documents of nuclear power plants in Vietnam, which are extremely complicated.
In the next ten years, Vietnam must have a national council on nuclear power, which will cooperate with big universities and experts to compile a specialized curriculum for Vietnamese trainees before sending them to study overseas.
Rectors of some famous universities in Vietnam told me that they are thinking of compilation of such a curriculum but the implementation is slow, not drastic as I saw in China and South Korea in the 1980s-1990s.
What is your opinion about the technology that Vietnam chooses for its first nuclear power plants?
Russian technology is considered the best in the world. In comparison with European countries and the US, Russian technology is technically better. However, its “quality protection culture” in assembly and construction is less than European countries and the US.
How much percentage does the “safety culture” account in the production cost of reactors?
It accounts for 20 percent of the production cost of the reactor and 20 percent in the operation process. A mistake in quality assurance that forces a reactor to stop operation for 1-2 days may cause losses of $1 million per day, for a reactor of 1,000 MW.
* Dr. Tran Dai Phuc has worked in nuclear power industry for 45 years in France, Canada, Belgium and Australia. He used to be an international nuclear controller. He now lives in France.
Dr. Phuc returns to Vietnam this time at the Vietnamese government’s invitation to share his experience and train staffs of the Nuclear Radiation Safety Agency and related bodies.
He has presented around 2,000 books on nuclear technology to the Ministry of Science and Technology.
