Vietnam modernizes its nuclear reactor

Vietnam, with the help of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), began work to modernize its nuclear reactor. Yesterday, the Vietnamese Ministry of Science and Technology authorized the modernization project.

According to the Vietnamese Atomic Energy Institute, a full evaluation of the technical condition of the reactor, especially its control systems, is envisaged within the framework of the project. Special consideration will be given to the technical variants of the modernization of the system and the possible replacement of old equipment, including protective devices.

To realize the project, the IAEA will allocate over $240,000 to the Vietnamese Institute of Nuclear Research and the Institute of Atomic Energy.

The project is scheduled to be completed in 2005.

The reactor is in Da Lat, a city in central Vietnam. In 1963, the Saigon regime put the 240 kilowatt reactor into operation.

After the regime was overthrown in 1975 and the Americans dismantled the main components, the reactor stopped operating. Soviet experts doubled its capacity (500 kilowatts) and put the reactor back into operation in 1984.

In 20 years, the reactor has not had any technological or ecological failures.