Vietnam Offers Incentives to Encourage Students to Study Nuclear Fields

Vietnam’s Ministries of Finance and Education and Training have jointly issued a circular to offer a number of incentives to encourage Vietnamese to study nuclear and atomic fields, the Thanh Nien newspaper reported. The move aims to promote human resource development in nuclear energy in order to have qualified workforce to serve for the country’s nuclear energy program. Students in nuclear and atomic fields will not have to pay tuitions. They will receive 1-2.5 folds higher living allowances compared to those of students in other fields, the circular said. Workers participating in the master and PhD courses in nuclear and atomic fields at home will receive living allowances along with intake salary. They will have a chance to take 6-month internship in foreign institutions and participate in international seminars in these fields, it said. Vietnam needs tens of thousands of qualified experts and workers in nuclear and atomic fields ten years later when the country receives its first nuclear power plant built by Russia. Currently, the country has dozens workers in these fields. Along with opening new courses in over ten domestic universities, Vietnam has sent hundreds of students to foreign institutions in Russia, Japan, Hungary, the UK, France and India, and others. Vietnam, despite lack of sufficient financial resources and adequate expertise, has an ambitious program to build 13 nuclear power plants with a total capacity of 10,700 MW by 2030. Hanoi has hired Moscow and Tokyo to build its two first nuclear power plant Ninh Thuan 1 and Ninh Thuan 2 in the central coastal province of Ninh Thuan. The construction of Russia’s Ninh Thuan 1 was scheduled in 2014 but is delayed for unspecific time due to unpreparedness. Vietnam has signed agreements with the U.S., India, South Korea, the UK, France and other countries on bilateral cooperation in nuclear power. Numerous Vietnamese intellectuals have objected the government’s nuclear power program, considering it risky and economically ineffective. They urged the government to stop the program and switch investment to wind and solar power as well as upgrade transmission system to cut electricity losses. (Thanh Nien – Young People Feb 25)