Vietnam signs major nuclear power contracts
Dimitry Medvedev and Nguyen Minh Triet celebrate the contract signing
Daylife/AP PHoto used by permission
Russia and Vietnam on Sunday signed a deal worth an estimated 5.6 billion dollars for the energy-hungry Southeast Asian country’s first nuclear power plant…
An official with Russian state nuclear conglomerate Rosatom has told AFP the construction cost of a two-reactor plant is estimated at more than four billion euros…
Vietnam wants to build eight nuclear facilities in the next two decades. Initial government plans call for four reactors, with a total capacity of 4,000 megawatts and at least one of them operational in 10 years’ time.
Sergei Kiriyenko said a 2020 timeframe for the Russian plant was “absolutely realistic”.
Russian President Medvedev earlier held talks with Vietnamese officials centred on expanding his country’s presence in Vietnam, which he said is “actively developing” on various fronts.
“On all these directions Russia will assist Vietnam, which is our close friend,” he said after paying his respects at the mausoleum of Vietnam’s revolutionary hero Ho Chi Minh…
Japan’s Prime Minister Naoto Kan, also on a visit to Hanoi, announced with his Vietnamese counterpart that the two countries will join forces to build two other nuclear reactors.
Moscow is willing to provide a loan to help finance the Russian plant’s construction…The two sides signed additional agreements on construction of a hydro power station and cooperation in the oil sector.
If the United States government, U.S. industry had brains located anywhere near their heads instead of the nether portions of their anatomy, we could have been providing those services to developing nations in Asia and elsewhere.
Back in the day, when I worked for a vendor to the nuclear power industry, I became fed-up with the policy of treating nuclear power generation as a short-term cash cow to supplement welfare for American capital goods producers. I quit. Went on to other aspects of metallurgy. Literature, Philosophy. Politics. You understand how that works.
When a couple of world-class safety screw-ups made nuclear power unpopular – and we had plenty of wars serving up supplemental income – our nation walked away from the dance. Leaving us decades behind productive commerce on the world stage.
Add to that the political history of America’s imperial adventures in the 3rd World…and you understand why there’s no American participation in any signing ceremonies like this.
