A REQUEST TO THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT TO CANCEL THE NUCLEAR POWER PLANT PROGRAM IN VIETNAM.

Vietnam, 21 May 2012

President Vladimir Putin

23 Ilyinka Street, Moscow, 103132

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev

Government House
2 Krasnopresnenskaya, Naberezhnaya, Moscow 103274

 C/c: Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Sergey Vikorovich Larvrov

        32/34 Smolenskaya-Sennaya pl., 119200, Moscow G-200. (dip@mid.ru) 

       : Russian Ambassador to Vietnam, Andrey Kovtun
        191 La Thanh Street, Hanoi Vietnam.   (rusemb.vietnam@gmail.com)

A REQUEST TO THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT TO CANCEL THE NUCLEAR POWER PLANT PROGRAM IN VIETNAM.

Dear President,

         Prime Minister,
         Minister of Foreign Affairs,
         Ambassador to Vietnam,

We, the concerned Vietnamese people residing in Vietnam and around the world, wish to protest against Russia’s decision to provide 160 billion RUB (5 billion US dollars) in loan money to the Vietnamese government to construct a nuclear power plant in Vietnam.

We strongly urge you and your government to immediately reverse this decision which we consider dangerous, short-sighted and lacking in morality.

Vietnam is a country with third world technology know-how, with inadequate and primitive safety standards. Its people lack knowledge of the deadly risks of nuclear contaminations caused by mishaps in nuclear reactors. Vietnam is amongst the world’s worst-prepared countries to manage a nuclear power plant and or consequent accidents.

A nuclear power plant in Vietnam would inevitably lead to a nuclear catastrophe. The citizens of Vietnam are potentially facing a frightening future, millions of human lives and generations at risk, with unimaginable long-term consequences.

Russia, despite its experiences in nuclear technology, especially in operating nuclear power plants, has had numerous accidents occur in the past. The following are just a few of Russia’s nuclear power plant accidents of which the public have knowledge:

 28 April 1986: Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster in Ukraine. The complete meltdown explosion was the worst nuclear accident in history. Radiation caused cancer deaths have reached the hundreds of thousands. The Chernobyl disaster has lead to millions of people being exposed to radioactive contamination with nearly a million premature cancer deaths between 1986 and 2004. The battle to contain the contamination and avert a greater catastrophe involved over 500,000 workers and cost an estimated 18 billion RUB (about 600 million USD). The human cost is tragic and will last for generations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster

24 March 1992:  A nuclear accident happened at the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant in Sosnovy Bor near St. Petersburg, Russia. Radioactive iodine escaped into the atmosphere. This nuclear power plant has had numerous nuclear accidents since 1975 - even as recently as August 2009.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leningrad_Nuclear_Power_Plant

05 November 2004: A nuclear accident occurred at Balakovskaya Nuclear Power Plant in Saratov, central Russia. The accident contaminated areas as far away as Samara and Saransk, 300km from the accident site. Businesses were ordered to close and people were ordered to stay inside behind closed doors.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1105-20.htm

22 July 2010: At the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant in Kurchatov, one nuclear reactor had a near catastrophic accidental meltdown .The Russian authorities withheld information of the accident and it was only revealed by the employees of the plant. http://www.bellona.org/articles/articles_2010/kurskNPP_safety 24

Even though Russia has extensive experience in building nuclear power plants and implementing nuclear power programs, Russia’s nuclear power plants have been involved in the majority of nuclear power plant accidents worldwide.

The Japanese have temporarily stopped operation in all of Japan’s 54 nuclear power plants as a result of the catastrophic partial meltdown following the nuclear explosion of four reactors in the Fukushima nuclear power complex following a severe earthquake and tsunami in the Fukushima region on 11 March 2011.  Deadly radioactive materials were released into the atmosphere contaminating both air and water, affecting millions of Japanese within a radius of 100 km.

Other developed countries such as Germany and Switzerland have swiftly adopted policies phasing out nuclear power plants. The United States has not constructed any new nuclear power plants since 1979 after the partial meltdown nuclear and explosion at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant. Many countries are now shifting away from nuclear power and committing to developing other sources of energy to meet their domestic needs.

Please allow us, the concerned Vietnamese people residing in Vietnam and around the world, to reiterate that Vietnam is amongst the world’s worst-prepared countries to manage a nuclear power plant. A nuclear power plant in Vietnam would inevitably lead to a nuclear catastrophe because Vietnam is a country with third world technology know-how, inadequate and primitive safety standards. Its people lack knowledge of the deadly risks of nuclear contaminations caused by accidents in nuclear reactors. The citizens of Vietnam are facing a potentially frightening future with millions of human lives and generations at risk and with unimaginable long-term consequences.

We appeal to the Russian Government to act responsibly in the interest of humanity and above and beyond any economic interests, by immediately ending its intention to export its nuclear power program to Vietnam.

We sincerely hope that you will come to a decision that protects Vietnam, the land and its people’s future wellbeing - thereby further protecting and consolidating the special relationship that exists between our two peoples.

We are anxiously awaiting your reply.

Sincerely yours,

On behalf of the concerned Vietnamese:

Prof Nguyen The Hung, Dr Nguyen Xuan Dien, Nguyen Hung              :
Contact email: hungthuoc@yahoo.com

List of 460 signatories collected between 14 May to 22 May 2012 is attached: