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February 21, 2014

In light of Fukushima disaster, Vietnam delays construction of 1st nuclear power plant

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/forum/politics_and_economy/southeast_asia/AJ201402210041

Professor at the Center for International Education and Research of Mie University

Michiko Yoshii is a professor at the Center for International Education and Research of Mie University. She did her postgraduate work at Paris VII University and the University of Tokyo and earned her Ph.D. Her areas of expertise are Vietnamese anti-war songs, the plight of street children and civil society.

Concern over the 2011 nuclear disaster in Japan has caused Vietnam to delay construction of its first nuclear power plant.

The project was initially scheduled to start this year, but the work may now be postponed until 2020.

The decision was announced by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on Jan. 15.

According to the Vietnamese newspaper Tuoi Tre one day afterward, Dung also said, "Building nuclear power plants will be done with the highest safety and efficiency, and the project will not go ahead unless standards are met."

The remarks pertain to the Ninh Thuan No. 1 nuclear power plant, which was ordered from a Russian state corporation. I truly hope the groundbreaking will be delayed, in line with his words.

OBJECTIONS FROM COMMUNIST PARTY MEMBERS

Many objections were raised in Vietnam after the plan for building the country's first nuclear power plants was finalized.

Typically, political and social issues draw critical comment from Vietnamese living abroad, in the United States for example. But on the issue of nuclear power plants, the outcry has a strong domestic base. Those who oppose the policy are former National Assembly members, university professors and high-ranking Communist Party officials.

In June 2011, three months after disaster unfolded at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, Pham Duy Hien, the former head of the governmental Dalat Nuclear Research Institute, where the only nuclear reactor operating in Vietnam is located, argued for a 10-year delay in construction work, citing safety issues and a lack of personnel.

Even within the government, Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Quan said repeatedly in 2012 that "personnel training will not keep up" with planned construction.

When I visited Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam last September, people sought me out to give lectures. They said, "We want you to tell us about Fukushima."

I hadn't lived in Fukushima, but I suppose they wanted to hear about Japan from a Japanese person who can speak directly to them in their own language. I met many artists and people affiliated with Vietnamese universities and the mass media, and I got the impression that a good number of them are skeptical about the quest for nuclear power.

I was also asked to write an article for the weekend edition of a national Vietnamese newspaper about changes in Japanese lifestyle in the aftermath of the Fukushima accident.

Vietnam's media is subject to strict censorship. Until then, it was the norm for the media to report about the Fukushima accident as something that had happened in the past and was now fully sorted out. I wrote about voluntary evacuees as well as short trips for recreation taken by Fukushima children to places where there was no fear of contamination. These articles seemed to be quite a novelty in Vietnam.

I took a group of students from Japan on a visit to Ninh Thuan Province, the site of the planned nuclear power plant, where we toured a village inhabited by the ethnic Cham people. When we visited the home of Inrasara, a Cham intellectual and poet of considerable world fame, we were all at a loss for words when we heard: "They're going to build a Russian nuclear power plant on the coast five kilometers from here. When it's finished, I'll be able to see it from my home." On the proposed site stands a small shrine where the Cham "god of the tsunami" is enshrined. We heard that the size of the shrine's grounds were reduced as part of preparations to build the nuclear power plant. He told us, "We struggle to put on our annual festival."

Ninh Thuan Province is the Cham heartland, where the Kingdom of Champa (192-1832) used to exist. Until 1975, it was recognized by the former government of South Vietnam as an autonomous area. Building intrusive facilities like a nuclear power plant in such a place is akin to U.S. military bases in Japan, is it not? When I heard about Dung's announcement with regard to nuclear power plants, I imagined the looks on the faces of the Cham minority.

MY SECOND HOME

I'm Japanese, so sometimes people who come hear my lectures applaud my stance, speaking as a Japanese, of opposing exports of nuclear technology from Japan. But they question whether I should be voicing objections to another country's construction of nuclear power plants. They view it as interference in their domestic affairs.

But the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters show that when an accident occurs, the effects cross national borders. As global citizens, we should speak out on issues of global concern.

My husband is Vietnamese. Our two children spent most of their early childhood in Ho Chi Minh City. Our family of four just only began living in Japan a few years ago. My children, who have Vietnamese citizenship, might live in Vietnam in the future. My husband and I have decided to spend our old age there.

I do not have Vietnamese citizenship, so although their leader is not my prime minister, I wholeheartedly welcome the statement that "we will not execute the plan when we cannot guarantee the highest safety" from Dung, the prime minister of my second home.