Saturday, April 21, 2012

Vietnam's Prime Minister: "I Trust Japan's Nuclear Technology"

It seems the news of the Fukushima nuclear accident never reached Vietnam.

Jiji Tsushin (4/21/2012):

日本の原発技術を信用=ベトナム首相

Vietnam premier trusts the Japanese technology for nuclear power plants

来日中のベトナムのグエン・タン・ズン首相は21日、東京都内で記者会見し、原発建設で日本の協力を受けることについて、「技術を信用している。最先端の技術を使ってほしい」と歓迎する意向を示した。

Prime Minister of Vietnam Nguyễn Tấn Dũng held a press conference in Tokyo on April 21. On the Japanese support for the nuclear power plant construction in Vietnam, the prime minister welcomed it by saying "I trust the Japanese technology. I would like to see the cutting-edge technology used [in building the plant]."


In return, Japan will increase the number of healthcare workers from Vietnam. (Never mind that many young people are unemployed or underemployed in Japan these days.)

There is also a non-profit organization that will bring 6,000 young Vietnamese men to Japan and have them "trained" at the nuclear power plants in Japan. (That news was at Sankei Shinbun last July, but the link has since disappeared. If you read Japanese, here's my copy.)

Win-win for businesses and well-connected politicians.

6 comments:

Chibaguy said...

I read the Japanese link and I guess at that time they would have anticipated all 54 reactors offline. Where to train?

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

They can train on how to maintain cold shutdown state.

Anonymous said...

Vietnam in training for PR Olympics.

http://english.vietnamnet.vn/en/science-technology/20991/vietnam-to-open-pr-center-on-nuclear-power.html

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

"...after the Fukushima incident"

Incident?? Incident??

Atomfritz said...

Indeed wise to name the story going on in Fukushima an "incident".

Looking at the high number of Vietnamese restaurants in Germany being closed for severe hygienic violations when a (rare, random) inspection of the hygienic office occurs, I assume that a Vietnamese-operated nuclear plant will be an even dirtier thing than an Indian nuclear plant.

But, I am somehow confused. The link anon 11:26 provided suggests that Vietnam is planning four WWER-1000 reactors.
And, to be honest, isn't the reactor technology used in Japan of cloned USA origin?

Maybe the Vietnamese are just interested to get some free advertising gifts from the Japanese who still hope to sell some actual reactors instead of reactor simulators or some control electronics only?

Anonymous said...

Ignorance and corruption in third world countries is one of the most compelling reasons Japan needs to give up on nuclear power and instead develop safer green technologies that can operate at commercial scale. The third world needs cheap energy options or we will see far more Fukushima-style mega-meltdowns in our future. Japanese non-nuclear technology could lead.

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