The US Senate Committee on ForeignRelations on July 22 approved the US - Vietnam agreement on civiliannuclear cooperation.
Signed by US Secretary of State JohnKerry and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh on the sidelines of the EastAsia Summit in Brunei in October 2013, the agreement was approved byPresident Barack Obama in February 2014.
The deal will allow UScompanies to enter Vietnam's expanding nuclear power market,potentially earning them 10-20 billion USD and generating 50,000high-paid jobs for American workers.
It is part of Vietnam’sefforts to ease its shortage of energy, towards meeting over 10 percentof the domestic power demand by 2030. It is now awaiting the Senate’spassage.
Non-proliferation activists and some lawmakers areconcerned that the agreement does not forbid Vietnam from enrichinguranium itself or reprocessing plutonium. Those capabilities can be usedto develop nuclear weapons.
Instead, Vietnam signed a non-binding memorandum with the US, saying that it does not intend to seek those capabilities.
The country’s nuclear power market is estimated to rank second inSoutheast Asia, only after China, with an estimated turnover of 50billion USD in the next two decades.-VNA
Signed by US Secretary of State JohnKerry and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh on the sidelines of the EastAsia Summit in Brunei in October 2013, the agreement was approved byPresident Barack Obama in February 2014.
The deal will allow UScompanies to enter Vietnam's expanding nuclear power market,potentially earning them 10-20 billion USD and generating 50,000high-paid jobs for American workers.
It is part of Vietnam’sefforts to ease its shortage of energy, towards meeting over 10 percentof the domestic power demand by 2030. It is now awaiting the Senate’spassage.
Non-proliferation activists and some lawmakers areconcerned that the agreement does not forbid Vietnam from enrichinguranium itself or reprocessing plutonium. Those capabilities can be usedto develop nuclear weapons.
Instead, Vietnam signed a non-binding memorandum with the US, saying that it does not intend to seek those capabilities.
The country’s nuclear power market is estimated to rank second inSoutheast Asia, only after China, with an estimated turnover of 50billion USD in the next two decades.-VNA
