Developing nuclear power is an “inevitable trend” for Vietnam, the Southeast Asian country’s industry and trade minister said.
Nguyen Hong Dien signalled that authorities may be considering resuming a plan to construct two nuclear power plants after the programme was suspended six years ago.
The proposed plants, with a combined capacity of 4,000 megawatts, were due to be built by Russia’s Rosatom and Japan Atomic Power in the central province of Ninh Thuan under the earlier plan.
Vietnam, a regional manufacturing hub, shelved the plan in 2016 following the Fukushima disaster in Japan five years earlier and due to budget constraints.
Nuclear Plants Not Cancelled
Dien said plans to develop the country’s first nuclear power plants were “suspended, not completely cancelled,” according to the government statement.
“Developing nuclear power is an ongoing inevitable trend in the world,” Dien told the country’s National Assembly, according to a statement posted on the government’s website.
Dien has pledged Vietnam will boost development of renewable energy following a commitment made in November last year to become carbon neutral by 2050, but that needed a “stable energy source”, he stressed.
“We can’t develop more coal-fired power plants, while the country’s hydropower potential has been fully tapped,” Dien said.
Vietnam wants to nearly double its total installed power generation capacity to 146,000 megawatts by 2030, according to the latest draft of its master power development plan.
- Reuters, with additional editing by George Russell
READ MORE:
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China Steps Up Nuclear Buildup as US Conflict Fears Grow – WSJ
