Vietnam and the United States officially signed an agreement on nuclear energy

Formerly, on October 10th 2013, in Brunei, in the framework of the 23rd ASEAN Summit and related Summits, this Agreement has been initialed between Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

This Agreement was signed in the spirit of Section 123 of the " Cooperation with other countries " in 1954 Atomic Energy Law of the United States, in order to regulate the trade transactions in the nuclear energy field and create a legal framework to strengthen cooperation between Vietnam and the U.S. partners in the research, training, development and application of nuclear energy, particularly in nuclear power development in Vietnam. 123 Agreement is a basis for Vietnam to receive advanced and modern nuclear technologies, directly or originally from the United States for the nuclear power projects in Vietnam.

In particular, the signing of the agreement marks an important step of reliability in cooperative relation between Vietnam and the United States on using nuclear energy for peaceful purpose, meanwhile opens up great prospects for both parties in promoting the specific cooperation projects on applications of radiation as well as nuclear power development to serve for socio-economic development of each country.

The scope of cooperation agreement includes: the development of nuclear energy use; research, development and application of civil nuclear reactor technologies, management of spent fuel; training, development of infrastructures and human sources; Research and application of radioisotopes in industry, agriculture, health and environment; radiation protection;  management of radioactive waste, spent fuel; safety, security, safeguards and non - proliferation.

At the same time, the Agreement stipulates to  transfer only low-enriched uranium fuel and the materials, equipment for carrying out the applications within the framework of the Agreement. The Agreement takes effect for 30 years and it will continue into force for each period of 5 years and can be modified upon agreement between the two sides through diplomatic channel.

The cooperation is performed according to the forms: Exchanging information, scientific and technical documents; exchanging and training cadres; organizing conference and seminar; providing services and technical support; common study; and the other forms agreed by the two sides.

Vietnamenergy.vn