Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui

Nearly 100 workers and engineers Thursday started seismic surveys at the location of Vietnam’s first nuclear power plant in the central province of Ninh Thuan, a local news website reported the same day.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung confirmed that Vietnam is determined to build nuclear power plants, otherwise the country will be in serious shortage of power.

Planned construction of two nuclear electricity plants in the southern province of Ninh Thuan is expected to help attract more investment projects here, bringing the human resources to the province, the newswire Vietnamnet reported.

Three companies, including Russia's E4 Group, JSC KIEP and LLC EPT, will provide consultation services to make a site approval dossier and an investment project for Ninh Thuan 1 nuclear power project.

Vietnam's prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung arrived in Tokyo Sunday on a four-day visit expected to promote Japan's export of nuclear power plants to his country and joint development of rare earths.

In Japan's most aggressive move to promote exports of nuclear technology since the Fukushima Daiichi accident in March, a Tokyo-based utility consortium signed a deal with Vietnam on Wednesday to conduct a feasibility study for two new reactors.

Two fault lines hitherto uncovered have provoked myriad calls for Vietnam's nuclear power plans to be deferred on safety considerations.

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.

Vietnam Atomic Energy Department (VAED) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) held a seminar in Hanoi on Monday to discuss measures to fulfill the master plan for building Vietnam's nuclear power infrastructure for the 2011-2015 period, according to Vietnam News Agency on Tuesday.

Members of an anti-nuclear group submitted a letter of concern about Vietnam's determination to build eight nuclear power plants to the Vietnamese embassy in Bangkok on Tuesday morning.

Vietnam is unlikely to be affected by radioactive dusts from the explosions of the Fukushima No 1 Nuclear Plant in Japan resulting from the earthquake and tsunami on March 11, affirmed a Vietnamese scientific official.

Part poacher, part gamekeeper, Glyn Davies, the US permanent representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency, flew to Hanoi this week to promote US nuclear technology while verifying that energy-hungry Vietnam has the appropriate safeguards in place to handle it.

Japan will provide Vietnam cutting-edge technologies and soft loans for a joint rare-earth mining project and construction of the latter's second nuclear plant, Ambassador Tanisaki Yasuaki told Tuoi Tre.

Vietnam agreed to make Japan a partner in building its nuclear power plants as the two nations negotiate a broader deal on the development of rare-earth minerals to secure supplies after China cut exports.

Japan and Vietnam were set to launch their first negotiations in Vienna on Friday toward signing a bilateral pact on peaceful use of nuclear technology, the Foreign Ministry said.