Vietnam Agency for Radiation and Nuclear Safety said a Vietnamese delegation will visit China as part of collaboration on the potential effects of three nuclear plants built near the border.
The 500 to 1,000 MW power plants that have just been put into use are designed to have six nuclear power units each. Two plants have activated two nuclear power reactors and one plant has activated three reactors.
The plants are located right by the border, with the closest nuclear power plant 50km away from Mong Cai City in the northern province of Quang Ninh.
Vuong Huu Tan, head of the Vietnam Agency for Radiation and Nuclear Safety said, "We have received reports on nuclear safety from China and have forward it to other agencies if they have any questions. Vietnam has the rights to question China and they can respond to any questions at the usual annual Nuclear Safety Convention meeting in Vienna, Austria."
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) recommends that the area surrounding nuclear power plants must be partitioned into different zones including protective action zone (PAZ) and urgent protective action planning zone (UPZ), extended planning distance (EPD) and ingestion and commodities planning distance (ICPD).
The PAZ and UPZ of nuclear power plants that have capacity of over 1,000MW must be 3-5km and 15-30km respectively. The EPD and ICPD must be 100km and 300km. Quang Ninh Province and several northern provinces of Vietnam are located within the extended planning distance of the power plants.
Pham Cong Tac, deputy minister of science and technology, said that 50km away from Mong Cai City was short as radiation leaking from Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant in 2011 reached Vietnam but the levels were so small that there was no health risk and an area of thousands of kilometres were affected by the Chernobyl disaster.
Pham Cong Tac, deputy minister of science and technology (right) speaking about the threats from China's nuclear power plants at the ministry's regular meeting on October 6.
Vuong Huu Tan said Vietnam joined the Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident since 1987 so it will be notified about potential nuclear accidents.
The Ministry Science and Technology has held discussions with China about nuclear power. The Vietnam Agency for Radiation and Nuclear Safety may sign an agreement with China's National Nuclear Safety Administration about the issue.
Nguyen Hao Quang, head of Vietnam Atomic Energy Institute said Vietnam already had two monitoring stations but they need a proper radiation monitoring network as Thailand and Cambodia also have plans to build nuclear power plants.
For now, government should invest into monitoring systems for provinces that are easily affected by the China's power plants such as Quang Ninh, Lang Son, Lao Cai, Nghe An and Hanoi.