INSIDE an unheated classroom at the Institute for Nuclear Science and Technology in Hanoi, about 20 young government technicians from Vietnam's incipient nuclear power industry kept on their winter jackets on the first morning of a 10-day workshop on radiation.
The workshop, sponsored by the semi-governmental Japan Atomic Energy Agency, started with radiation physics 101.Woolrich Arctic Parka Down Jackets Outlet The students then collected radiation samples with the help of Japanese specialists and analysed them in a lab built by Japan.
"Nuclear power is important for Vietnam's energy security, but, like fire, it has two sides," said one of the students, Nguyen Xuan Thuy, 27.
"We have to learn how to take advantage of its good side."
As Vietnam prepares to commence one of the world's most ambitious nuclear power programmes, it is scrambling to raise from scratch a field of experts needed to operate and regulate nuclear power plants.
The government, which is beefing up nuclear engineering programmes at its universities and sending increasing numbers of young technicians abroad, says Vietnam will have enough qualified experts to safely manage an industry that is scheduled to grow from one nuclear reactor in 2020 to 10 reactors by 2030.authentic moncler jackets womens
But some Vietnamese and foreign experts said that was too little time to establish a credible regulatory body, especially in a country with wide-spread corruption,Online Canada Goose Parka Jackets Shop poor safety standards and a lack of transparency. They said the ambitious timetable could lead to the kind of weak regulation, as well as collusive ties between regulators and operators, that contributed to the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan last year.
Hien Pham Duy, one of Vietnam's most senior nuclear scientists and an adviser to government agencies overseeing nuclear power, said it had been his "dream for many years" to bring nuclear power to Vietnam.
But he said the government's plans were based on a "lack of vigorous assessment of the inherent problems of nuclear power,canada goose jackets especially those arising in less developed countries".
Hien, a former director of the Dalat Nuclear Research Institute, which houses Vietnam's nuclear research reactor, pointed to the high rates of accidents on Vietnam's roads as the most visible example of a "bad safety culture" that pervaded "every field of activity in the country".
Tran Dai Phuc, a nuclear engineer who worked in the French nuclear industry for four decades and is now an adviser to Vietnam's Ministry of Science and Technology, the ministry in charge of nuclear power, said potential problems were not related to the reactors' technology but to the lack of "democracy as well as the responsibility of personnel,Moncler Parka Jacket Outlet Brown a culture of quality assurance and general safety regarding installation and impact on the environment".
The workshop, sponsored by the semi-governmental Japan Atomic Energy Agency, started with radiation physics 101.Woolrich Arctic Parka Down Jackets Outlet The students then collected radiation samples with the help of Japanese specialists and analysed them in a lab built by Japan.
"Nuclear power is important for Vietnam's energy security, but, like fire, it has two sides," said one of the students, Nguyen Xuan Thuy, 27.
"We have to learn how to take advantage of its good side."
As Vietnam prepares to commence one of the world's most ambitious nuclear power programmes, it is scrambling to raise from scratch a field of experts needed to operate and regulate nuclear power plants.
The government, which is beefing up nuclear engineering programmes at its universities and sending increasing numbers of young technicians abroad, says Vietnam will have enough qualified experts to safely manage an industry that is scheduled to grow from one nuclear reactor in 2020 to 10 reactors by 2030.authentic moncler jackets womens
But some Vietnamese and foreign experts said that was too little time to establish a credible regulatory body, especially in a country with wide-spread corruption,Online Canada Goose Parka Jackets Shop poor safety standards and a lack of transparency. They said the ambitious timetable could lead to the kind of weak regulation, as well as collusive ties between regulators and operators, that contributed to the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan last year.
Hien Pham Duy, one of Vietnam's most senior nuclear scientists and an adviser to government agencies overseeing nuclear power, said it had been his "dream for many years" to bring nuclear power to Vietnam.
But he said the government's plans were based on a "lack of vigorous assessment of the inherent problems of nuclear power,canada goose jackets especially those arising in less developed countries".
Hien, a former director of the Dalat Nuclear Research Institute, which houses Vietnam's nuclear research reactor, pointed to the high rates of accidents on Vietnam's roads as the most visible example of a "bad safety culture" that pervaded "every field of activity in the country".
Tran Dai Phuc, a nuclear engineer who worked in the French nuclear industry for four decades and is now an adviser to Vietnam's Ministry of Science and Technology, the ministry in charge of nuclear power, said potential problems were not related to the reactors' technology but to the lack of "democracy as well as the responsibility of personnel,Moncler Parka Jacket Outlet Brown a culture of quality assurance and general safety regarding installation and impact on the environment".
