The lack of young experts in the nuclear energy sector is a great challenge to nuclear research and nuclear energy development in Vietnam, as heard a seminar on nuclear human resources on July 17.

Participants at the event in the Central Highland Da Lat City, which is home to Vietnam’s first research nuclear reactor, said experts in the field are getting old while there are few young talented scientists.

General Director of Da Lat Nuclear Research Institute’s training centre Nguyen Xuan Hai said Vietnam has six universities which offer training courses in nuclear-related fields with about 200 graduate students each year.

However low recruitment demand plus low salary makes research establishments not attractive to young talents, he added.

The Vietnam Atomic Energy Institute (Vinatom) said as a new nuclear research centre will be built and begin operation in Da Lat in 2020, the facility will need 400 specialists.

Some solutions were proposed to develop manpower for the centre at the event such as sending students to study abroad and recruit more specialists for research institutes.

The new centre will have a researching reactor with a capacity of 30MW, 30 times the capacity of the existing reactor which will stop operating in 10 years. The site for the centre is under consideration.-VNA