Expert states Vietnam needs 20 nuclear power plants

BBC, 4.9.07

My (Tommy Le [tommy_pe2001@xxxxxxxxx]) comments: This article comes
from a journal here . Personally I am pro-nuclear... but 20 plants for
Vietnam? That's a lot of power not to mention the resources it would
take to build them. Given the fact they are having a really tough time
getting a single refinery completed and their government ministries
are chasing their tails with car manufacturing, I wonder how they
could tackle nuclear power as it is a whole new ballgame. Wonder if
this guy is serious?
*
Mr.Dinh Duc Huu, Chairman & CEO of American Technologies, Inc. Dr.
Dinh Duc Huu is the first Vietnamese � American who has license
on operating nuclear power plant. He is now the President and CEO of
American Technologies, Inc. ; (ATI), a 100% foreign invested company,
performing in the fields of Eco-tourism, Information Technology,
Aquaculture, and Oil & Gas exploration and exploitation in Vietnam. He
believes that in order to maintain an annual growth rate of 7-8%,
Vietnam should build around 20 nuclear power plants.
UN environmental experts have made an important conclusion in a recent
world climate conference held in Bangkok.
They said that nuclear power should be seriously taken into
consideration and seen as a solution to prevent the global warming.
The earth warming results in remarkable changes of conventional
climate models, leading to drought, flood, storm, earthquake and
negative effect on human beings.
In Vietnam, a pre-feasible project on the first ever nuclear power
plant construction is in the pipeline, which has a capacity of around
2400 megawatt and is located in the province of Binh Thuan. Once being
approved, it will come into operation in 2017 - 2020.
Dr. Dinh Duc Huu is the first Vietnamese. ; American who has license
on operating nuclear power plant. He is now the President and CEO of
American Technologies, Inc. ; (ATI), a 100% foreign invested company,
performing in the fields of Eco-tourism, Information Technology,
Aquaculture, and Oil & Gas exploration and exploitation in Vietnam. He
believes that in order to maintain an annual growth rate of 7-8%,
Vietnam should build around 20 nuclear power plants.
DDH: Nuclear power plant construction is already included in Vietnam
government�s plan. I am well experienced and considered an
expert in this field and being a Vietnamese, I deem it my duty to make
petition to the government and notify Vietnamese people of the issue.
We need to do right now to capture such opportunity when the
government has had a plan for that. And according to me, two things
earned our attentions as followed:
First, oil and gas will soon be exhausted, so it should be used for
key objectives other than producing electricity. When I was invited to
Libya to counsel its government on nuclear power plant construction,
their scientists told me such a simple thing. ; instead of oil, Libya
would use nuclear energy for electricity production. And this would be
a good example for Vietnam.
Hydroelectricity exhausted, too
The second reason is that, hydroelectricity is going to be exhausted
as well. Locations suitable for building big hydroelectricity plant
are no longer available. There is no different with coal. Furthermore,
people around the world are trying to prevent the environment from
being polluted, ozone layer from being destroyed and the earth from
getting warmer. Scientists have clearly affirmed that danger.
Therefore using coal for electricity is becoming limited and on a
decreased trend.
Other energy sources to produce electricity like wind and sun are
still on research phase, its application has remained in small scale .
In 20 years, Vietnam will grow drastically and chances are such
economic engine is likely overheated. Korea used to achieve a growth
rate of around 7% per year as the maximum and they are lacking in
electricity eventhough 20 nuclear power plants were in built in 20
years. Presently, 10 more plants are being built to meet increasing
demand.
Vietnam, a bigger nation in terms of population and areas, would enjoy
a faster growth. So electricity in need to maintain the annual growth
rate of 7-8% will be higher than that of Korea. That why we have to
build at least 20 nuclear power plants other than 1 or 2 in the next
20 years.
50% from Nuclear Power
BBC: Why such a developing country like Vietnam needs up to 20 nuclear
power plants? Do you take into account of the human resource,
infrastructure and the cost needed?
Dinh Duc Huu In my opinion 40% of electricity should be generated from
nuclear energy in the next 20 years. The rest should come from other
sources. Then, we can see three main sources. First, nuclear power
plays a key role as it is sustainable long-lasting. Second,
hydroelectricity in Vietnam is working quite well and it will make up
a large portion. The rest come from coal and oil. That is a smart
solution for future energy industry. it will enable stability of the
national energy security. Energy industry should always be one step in
advance. Now we still lack of one source which needs to be fulfilled
right now. In the next five years, we will witness seriousness of this
issue since without timely consideration, we would face severe
electricity shortage.
BBC: Is it true that it is cheaper and less time-consuming to build a
new nuclear power plant than before?
Dinh Duc Huu Over the last 20 years, there were 3 main reasons that
made nuclear power inconvenient and tricky to build as it is right
now. Firstly, the second generation of nuclear power plant was not
perfect in terms of safety system. It was costly and hierarchical.
Second was the approval procedure to build such plants. It was
complicated at that time. It was the people�s ignorance that
laid a series of barriers to translate this into reality.
The third reason was that other energy sources used to be abundant and
at reasonable price, especially oil price which was around 15 to 20
dollars per barrel. Things changed fast since then. Now oil price
fluctuates around $70. And the above-mentioned pressed all the right
buttons for scientiests perfecting nuclear power technology. And the
latest design coded AP1000 of US-based Westinghouse company is
currently considered the world champion in the field. For what reason
I give out that idea? Because Chinese people are very smart. They held
an international competition on nuclear power plant design in five to
seven years, attracting the participation of first-class companies
from Russia, Japan, America, Canada, UK and France. Chinese people
became jury and victory finally fell into the hand of the Americans.
The design of the Westinghouse granted the first prize. Then China
signed a 10-billion-dollar contract with the US to build four new
plants immediately and 40 others in the future.
BBC: time to build a new plant has been cut by half so it is not very
difficult to build more plants in a shorter time nowadays?
Dinh Duc Huu So far, two turning points have been seen in terms of
nuclear energy investment and utilization. First is the higher safety
and second is the lower cost. Earlier, it took ten years to build a
new plant but now is only three years. It is no longer in need of some
bulky equipments and it is safer and cheaper.
A nuclear plant with an output capacity of 2400 megawatt, life-span of
60 years and a possible extension of 20 years, could be equally
effective as that of Bach Ho oil rig in Vietnam. So would you like 20
units like Bach Ho? The answer is simply yes. Then do it. we have
enough resource to do it. And don�t be hesitative because the
starting point of Korea was not as favorable as that of Vietnam.
I was trained by the US to fulfill from the simplest tasks to the most
sophisticated ones and I am competent for running a nuclear power
plant. it is like a good hen to breed many more capable chicken. Now I
believe it is time to help our country and that is my great honor.
Once I am assigned by Prime Minister, I would be very pleased to
start.
BBC: Safety is always the top priority for a nuclear power plant. What
would you do to ensure it and to promote it?
Dinh Duc Huu: the core rule of safety in a nuclear power plant
operation is to cool down reactors. It is as simple as that reactors
must always have enough water so that it will not be burnt out. That
is the key. It means reactors should not be in state of water
shortage.
People used to make a very hierarchical system. Pump is usually
hundred meters away from reactors and located at low positions while a
reactor is too high. So when there is an incident, like we need water
immediately when a house is on fire, it is hard to solve problem in
the face of water deficiency.
BBC: You mean the new generation reactor is much safer than the old
ones in terms of operating principle?
Dinh Duc Huu: Firstly, the point is that whether the pipeline, the
pump and valve are ready or not? Secondly, when they are all in place
but it takes much time to pump water then it is basically wrong with
the design. It makes reactor construction very costly and complicated
as lots of money was poured into the system of pump, waterspout,
pipeline and valves.
And for safety reason, there must always be two systems: A and B. B is
a backup in case A is not working. Besides, it must be designed to
deal with earthquake or other issues. especially the environment
problem, we have to make sure that it will not cause any harms to the
system. It is like raising army for 10 years but using for battlefield
just once.
Under such circumstance, your army must be completely strong. So it is
extremely expensive to make that standby system. Not only construction
is very complicated but a regular maintenance is required as well.
Trial run should be periodically done within a week or a couple of
days and it is extremely complicated. That is why a nuclear power
plant became very expensive. The safety system of the old generation
reactor always accounts for 35-40% total cost. So the total cost and
time to construct a plant is continuosly escalated.
Now this problem has been solved. reactor designers have come to a
conclusion that - simplication is the golden thumb rule. And the law
of gravity force is adopted. A reactor will include a very big steel
and cement cover called containment and its top is left empty.
Then a huge water tank is installed on the top of a reactor. That tank
has two big pipes directly coming down into a reactor. When any
problems pop up, two valves will be opened and water, through those
pipes, will be poured into that reactor until it cools down. No
radioactive substances would be leaked out. I tried to explain this
technique in a simple way since a description with more technical
terms might result in incomprehension. (source: BBC)

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