Minister of Industry and Trade: Vietnam will develop more small nuclear electricity

Vietnam restarted the Ninh Thuan nuclear power project, expected to be completed in 5 years. In particular, Ninh Thuan 1 factory is located in Phuoc Dinh commune, Thuan Nam district. Ninh Thuan 2 Factory is located in Vinh Hai commune, Ninh Hai district. Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN), National Energy Industry (PVN) in turn investors these two factories.

In addition to the project in Ninh Thuan, it is expected that on a centralized scale, Vietnam will develop a small -scale nuclear electricity nationwide, according to the shared by Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien at a meeting meeting. Judgment of Electrical Plan VIII, February 12.

In addition to the traditional model with large capacity, nuclear technology has recently developed a small and medium -sized module reactor (SMR). This type is only a tenth of the standard reactor, so it is easy to build and appropriate investment. It is estimated that the investment cost of each MW according to the SMR furnace ranges $ 7,000-12,000, or 2.1-3.6 billion USD for a 300 MW factory. The construction time of this factory is about 2-3 years. While the cost of building a standard factory is about 6-9 billion USD, it takes about 5 years, even more than 10 years of projects.

Nuclear power source (including small -scale nuclear power SMR) must be placed in potential locations Due to special related to safety, regional geology and nuclear burial issues.

The Minister also said that this adjustment plan will determine at least 3 out of 8 planned locations that can build a nuclear power plant until 2030, in addition to two locations in Ninh Thuan.

At the draft, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said that limited potential for nuclear power development can be considered for construction in 3 regions, including South Central (about 25-30 GW), Central Central (about 10 GW) and North Central Coast (about 4-5 GW).

In particular, 8 locations can build a nuclear power plant. These positions are located in 5 provinces, according to the Prime Minister’s Decision 906 dated June 17, 2010, on the planning of nuclear power development. In particular, each position has the potential to develop about 4-6 GW of nuclear power.

8 locations, including 3 positions in Ninh Thuan, 2 in Quang Ngai, the remaining 3 places in Binh Dinh, Phu Yen and Ha Tinh provinces.

In particular, the two locations of Phuoc Dinh and Vinh Hai (Ninh Thuan) have published the planning of the construction site of a nuclear power plant. Two locations in Quang Ngai, 1 in Binh Dinh are also considered as a potential place to develop 4 large -scale nuclear electrical units. However, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, because there is no planning, after 10 years, these locations need to review and re -evaluate.

This ministry calculated that by 2050, Vietnam will appear with 5 GW of nuclear power in the North Central Coast, in addition to 4,800 MW of the committed nuclear power source in Ninh Thuan. In addition, the energy source from the mixed and liquefied gas pattern (LNG) will have an additional 8.4 GW. Wind power, solar power and storage battery continues to increase compared to the current VIII power plan.

Vietnam aims to grow economic growth over 8% this year and two digits in the following years. That is, the demand for electricity growth is about 12-14%annually. To achieve this goal, the size of the power source up to 2030 of Vietnam must develop 2.5-3 times more than the present, reaching 5-7 times the scale of 2050, according to Minister Nguyen Hong Dien.

Commenting on the draft, Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, Vice President and General Secretary of the Vietnam Energy Association noted that the operator should calculate the contemplation plan by the region to avoid local power shortage, instead of common backup. nationwide. In addition, it is necessary to carefully evaluate the electricity demand for green transport, especially the North -South high -speed rail and the Metro system.

The strategy of energy development, investment allocation needs to be balanced between areas, not letting the North lack electricity, the Central region is redundant. “Should take advantage of the potential of solar power in the North, such as Germany has 96,000 MW of this type of energy with only 900 hours of sunshine per year, while North Vietnam has up to 1,200 hours,” Mr. Tuan said.

In the same opinion, Mr. Nguyen Thai Son, Chairman of the Vietnam Journal of Energy Magazine, said that the drafting agency needs to assess the difference between the regions in the forecast of electricity demand. According to him, there are areas reaching 101% compared to forecasts, some regions only reach less than 80%, so they must carefully analyze the cause for appropriate solutions.

Currently, the North and the South are still two main economic centers, while the Central – despite having many potential for renewable energy – has not been properly exploited. Therefore, Mr. Ngo Tuan Kiet, former Director of the Institute of Energy Science, proposed a study of a central economic development scenario. This is to reduce the pressure to transmit electricity to the North and South, reduce the risk of natural disasters with the transmission system, making the most of the available energy sources on the spot.