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nuclear energy programme

With its energy deficit rising every year,
several experts are advising Vietnam to
reconsider the shelved nuclear power
program.
Nuclear energy is one of the
recommendations made by experts as the
Industry and Trade Ministry (MoIT) gathers
public inputs for its 2021-2030 National
Energy Master Plan (with orientation towards
2050).
Tran Xuan Hoa, Chairman of the Vietnam
Mining Technology Association, said that as
Vietnam’s net energy imports continue to rise,
it is getting harder and harder to find sources
that would allow the country to access stable
energy sources to meet its socio-economic
development goals.
A restart of the nuclear development
program should be included in the national
master plan, he said, adding that compared
to other types of energy currently available,
He said that South Korea would more than “One especially urgent challenge is [China’s] nuclear energy was “still relatively safer and
triple the number of operating solar and wind manipulation of the Mekong flows for its own low-priced”.
power installations by 2025, compared with profit at great cost to downstream nations. This is the first time that Vietnam is
the number online as of 2019. Right now the Mekong is suffering from [the] working on a comprehensive national energy
The country also will provide incentives to lowest water levels recorded, devastating master plan. Prior to this, energy plans were
increase the number of electric vehicles on its harvests [and] threatening food and water made on a piecemeal basis, that is, for each
roads to 1.13mn, up from the current 110,000, security throughout the region.” individual energy sector.
and to increase the number of hydrogen- His comments came as Vietnam prepared Hoa said Vietnam had in 2016 approved a
powered vehicles to 200,000, up from the to host the 27th regional forum for the nuclear power development plan which would
current 8,000. Association of Southeast Asian Nations. “All build two plants with a designed capacity of
South Korea has about 60 operating coal these things have potential to lead to greater 4,000MW per year in the southern province
plants, which generate about 40% of the instability,” he said. of Ninh Thuan. Work on the plants was set to
country’s electricity. The Mekong is expected to be another start the same year.
The country over the past three years has point of tension between Beijing and However, in November 2016, the National
implemented temporary shutdowns of plants Washington as the bilateral relationship turns Assembly decided to suspend all nuclear
that are more than 30 years old. increasingly hostile over trade and potential development until 2030, saying it wanted to
“The government will work with the clashes involving China’s expansionist allocate capital for coal and gas, modernizing
people to bring back the blue skies with more ambitions in the South China Sea. infrastructure to boost socio-economic
powerful environmental policies,” Jae-in said. The two countries have produced development and adapting to climate change.
contradictory studies on the Mekong’s flow in
the five downstream countries.
The 2,700-mile Mekong, the 12th longest
HYDRO river, originates in the Tibetan Plateau and is VIRTUAL POWER
known as the Lancang to the Chinese. It flows
US attacks Chinese-backed through six nations before spilling into the Tesla secures funding for
South China Sea. To harness its hydropower
Mekong dams China has built 11 cascade-style dams Australia’s largest virtual
upstream.
China has been accused of limiting the water Water being released from the Three power plant
to one of the world’s biggest rivers, on which Gorges Dam, a gigantic hydropower project
60 million people rely, to feed its hydro- on the Yangtze river, in Yichang, central The Australian Renewable Energy Agency
electric dams, the Australian reported. China’s Hubei province. has issued AUD8.2mn in funding for the
David Stilwell, the US assistant secretary development of what is claimed to be the
of state for east Asia and the Pacific, said that largest virtual power plant in the country.
Beijing was manipulating the water flows of The funding will be used by Tesla Motors
the Mekong with upstream dam projects to NUCLEAR Australia to install battery energy storage and
the detriment of Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, rooftop solar systems for 3,000 residential
Vietnam and Burma. Vietnam advised to restart consumers in South Australia.
He said before a regional forum this week: The pilot will also leverage AUD10mn

Week 36 09•September•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P11