Le Dinh Tien, Vietnam's deputy minister of science and technology, said the country considers safety a priority in its nuclear energy development following the disaster in Japan earlier this year.
Tien was commenting in Hanoi today on the challenges that the Southeast Asian nation may face when implementing its first nuclear projects.
On Vietnam's nuclear plans:
"We already have investors for the first nuclear power plants and we will still go ahead with our plan in building those projects.
"We are now in the preparation process with Japanese and Russian partners to sign feasibility studies, preparing to choose consultants for the projects.
"For Vietnam, since this is the first time we are building nuclear power plants, we are facing a lot of challenges in all aspects, from human resources to infrastructure, from legal issues to setting safety standards."
On Safety standards:
"After the breakdown at the nuclear plant in Japan, the international community has discussed and taken steps to raise safety standards at nuclear power plants. In Vietnam, safety will also be one of the most important factors during construction.
"We hope that when the first two nuclear power plants are put into operation, they will meet about 4.5 percent of total electricity demand.
"We will start construction of the first nuclear plant in 2014 which will have two turbines with capacity of 2,000 megawatts. The second one will also be implemented after that, with the same capacity."
