The proposal to build a nuclear power plant by 2020 is being formulated despite the lack of experience or infrastructure linked to the nuclear field in the country.

Vietnam will have to raise as much as 3.5 billion dollars to build a nuclear plant but some Vietnamese experts believe it is realistic.

The industry ministry has submitted a pre-feasibility study to Prime Minister Phan Van Khai. Two sites have been identified in the southern coastal province of Ninh Thuan.

Several countries with experience in the field, including France, Japan and South Korea, have shown interest in helping Vietnam build a civilian nuclear plant.

Only a strategic decision by the highest level leadership is needed.

"Relevant agencies are trying to follow the plan, but we need higher determination from the government," said Le Van Hong, Vice President of Vietnam Atomic Energy Commission.

"However, I believe in the commitment of the Vietnamese government as it is the one that has urged agencies concerned to proceed with the project," Hong told AFP.

Energy security is one of the greatest challenges facing Vietnam, whose economy has been growing at about seven percent annually over the past few years.

Demand for energy is growing at 15 percent a year and power projects have been mushrooming apace all over the country.

Although Vietnam is blessed with a number of rivers that are being harnessed for hydroelectricity and has significant natural gas and coal deposits, their exploitation is deemed insufficient to meet the burgeoning power demand.

By 2020, Vietnam will need 200 to 230 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity but will only have 165 billion kw/h with conventional sources, says Tran Thanh Lien, head of the International Relations department of Vietnam's Institute of Energy.

"If the determination is strong enough, the project could be achieved by 2020," he said.

But debate on the issue rages among the country's scientists and politicians.

"There have been signs opinion is divided within Vietnam over the merits of a nuclear power industry," said Carl Thayer, Vietnam expert at the Australian Defence Force Academy.

"Opposition up to now has partly come from some members of the scientific community who have expressed a variety of concerns regarding safety, proper training of personnel, finance and geographical location," he said.

Doubts about the viability of nuclear power abound since a nuclear accident at Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986. They were heightened after an incident in Mihama, Japan, in August 2004 when the release of radioactive steam killed five people.

"Obviously there are questions about safety and whether we have the proper trained personnel to run the plant," said Nguyen Ngoc Tran, deputy chairman of the National Assembly's Foreign Relations Committee.

Professor Pham Duy Hien, a leading expert on atomic energy also belongs in the sceptics' camp.

"Even by the year 2017, Vietnam will not be ready for nuclear energy," Hien was quoted as saying in an article by Thayer. "The country lacks necessary human resources as well as a legal infrastructure to address nuclear accidents if they happen."

The fierce debate is expected to continue as the country's parliament, the National Assembly, will have to consider the plan after the approval by the government, if and when it comes.

France has recently offered to help draw up legislation governing nuclear power, which could be put before the assembly by 2007, according to Vietnam News Agency.

In 2003, Vietnam's Institute of Technology for Radioactive Materials said the country had an estimated 230,000 tonnes (tons) of naturally-occurring uranium reserves and could run a nuclear power station for at least 24 years.

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