The highlight of the evening was the presentation of industry awards by the ROSATOM to Vietnamese scientists and workers for their major contributions to the modernization and development of the research rector in the town of Dalat. The event, which was held to mark the 30th anniversary of the upgraded research reactor and the 60th anniversary of atomic energy, the history of which started with the construction of the first atomic plant in Obninsk (a town 100km from Moscow, capital of Russia). The reception was attended by staff and veterans of Vietnam’s nuclear industry and by Russian scientists who were involved in restring the reactor in the 1980s.
Vyacheslav Pershukov, deputy director general of ROSATOM for research and engineering, presented the awards on behalf of the company to the following: Professor Pham Sieu Hien, former vice president of the Vietnamese Nuclear Energy Commission; Professor Ngo Kwang Sieu, former deputy director of the Nuclear Research Institute in Dalat; Professor Ngo Van Dat, former director of the Ho Chi Minh City Centre for Nuclear Techniques; Doctor Pham Kuok Tin, former deputy director of the Dalat Nuclear Research Institute; Assistant Professor Nguyen Mong Sinh, former deputy director of the Dalat Nuclear Research Institute; Doctor Tran Ha An, former deputy director of the Dalat Nuclear Research Institute.
The staff of the Dalat Nuclear Research Institute were also awarded a certificate of honour by Rosatom for work carried out in 1982-84 to commission the nuclear reactor. This is the first time that such awards have been presented to Vietnamese colleagues and, in the words of a Vietnamese spokesman, they testify “to the strong friendship between the scientific communities of the two countries”. Pershukov noted the high standards of qualification of the Vietnamese specialists and the key role played by the Dalat research institute in training industry staff: “As one of the first countries in the region to start developing nuclear energy, Vietnam has attained great heights in this sphere and is on the verge of building its first nuclear power plant. This has been achieved, first and foremost, thanks to the Dalat research centre and its workers.”
Speaking at the ceremony, Deputy Minister of Science & Technology Le Dinh Tien highly appreciated the support provided by the Government and specialists of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, who help Vietnam with their best effort to renovate, expand and reboot Dalat Nuclear Research Reactor with more advanced equipment. On behalf of the Ministry of Science and Technology he awarded 13 Russian scientists, who participated in reconstruction of Dalat Nuclear Research Reactor.
Vladimir Ognev, a representative of the International Union of Nuclear Energy and Industry Veterans and of the Russian-Vietnamese Friendship Society, thanked his Vietnamese colleagues on behalf of Russia’s veterans for the initiative to hold the evening of friendship and expressed the hope that veterans from the two countries would continue working together. “Our task, the task of the veterans, is to pass on experience and knowledge to the younger generation and to demonstrate through our own examples the prospects for education in the field of nuclear energy”.
The event also included an exhibition of historical photographs devoted to Russian – Vietnamese cooperation. The exhibition featured unique photographs of Russian scientists who, on the basis of a 1979 inter-governmental agreement, were directly involved in restoring and commissioning the research reactor in the early 1980s.
Since the upgraded reactor was commissioned over 500 highly qualified specialists have worked on it. Russia and Vietnam are currently discussing the prospects for building a new research reactor and creating a new science and technology centre as a platform for developing staff and nuclear technologies in Vietnam. Speaking about the importance of the project for the construction of the first atomic plant in Vietnam "Nintkhuan-1", Pershukov said that the crucial task of the Centre was to prepare specialists in atomic science and generation. The Centre is necessary not only to make Vietnam a country, where other countries could build atomic plants, but a country whose specialists would be able to run those plants. The new reactor with power capacity of 15 Magawatt will allow to train qualified specialists, make fundamental research and will also have a practical importance in medicine and chemistry, for example.
During their visit to Vietnam Vyacheslav Pershukov and the Director general of "SNIIP-SISTEMATOM" Mikhail Romanichev presented reports on a scientific symposium "Design, operation and use of research reactors" on March 19.
07 Июня 2025 | суббота | 07:10
