Vietnam Unveils Plans For 2,400 New Nuclear Engineers By 2020
Written by NucNet
Tuesday, 24 August 2010
The Vietnamese government has approved a national training programme that aims to prepare for the construction of new nuclear plants by training 2,400 new nuclear engineers by 2020.
The ‘training and human resource development project in the field of atomic energy’ was approved by prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung on 18 August 2010.
The programme has a budget of 3 trillion Vietnamese dong (about 122 million euro; 154 million US dollars) to the year 2020.
The Vietnamese government said the programme aims to “ensure the quantity and quality” of professionals to meet the needs of the country’s nuclear energy development programme.
The traininng programme will be carried out under the authority of a new steering committee on training and human resources, led by one of Vietnam’s deputy prime ministers. The government expects at least 250 students to enroll each year.
In addition to the training of 2,400 new engineers, the project plans for an additional 350 masters and doctoral students who will be qualified in the operation of nuclear facilities.
The government also announced on 21 August 2010 that a further 650 engineers will qualify under the project including 250 masters and doctoral students trained in research, management and security applications.
“Human resources in science and nuclear technology are lacking in both quantity and quality in Vietnam,” said a government statement, adding that the current lack of leading scientists was also an issue.
According to the government, only 62 of 505 professionals in nuclear science-related disciplines have doctorates, and those professionals have an average age of over 50 years.
The government added that by 2015 Vietnam would invest in upgrading the university education system and that the initial focus would be on upgrading five universities offering specialised training in nuclear technology-related sciences.
The five universities are the Hanoi University of Technology (or Hanoi Polytechnic), the colleges of Natural Sciences at Hanoi National University and Ho Chi Minh City, Dalat University and Vietnam’s Electric Power University.
The government said facilities and equipment for specialised training in nuclear were “lacking and outdated”.
It said the project would also benefit the Vietnam Atomic Energy Institute’s nuclear training centre.
By 2020 Vietnam plans to install 4,000 megawatts of nuclear capacity on two sites in the southern Ninh Thuan province, at Phuoc Dinh and Vinh Hai. Vietnam has no commercial nuclear power plants, but does have a research reactor at the Dalat Nuclear Research Institute.
