News

December 2025: Since April 2023, German and Vietnamese partners have been working together in the CLIENT II project RENO-TITAN to assess titanium ore mining in Vietnam from a radiation protection perspective and to examine options for the safe reuse of the residual sands generated in the process – for example as a substitute for increasingly scarce construction sand. In November 2025, around four months before the project ends, site visits in Vietnam provided an opportunity to discuss the results obtained so far with authorities, industry and research institutions and to plan further steps.

September 2024: From 10 to 18 September 2024, ten Vietnamese experts from administration, research and the titanium industry visited Germany as part of a study trip. The focus was on learning about German solutions in radiation protection in general and specifically for handling naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) – from safe management to disposal or reuse in construction products.

April 2024: In the joint project RENO-TITAN at the Department of Water, Environment, Construction and Safety, it is being investigated whether residues from Vietnamese titanium mining can be recycled due to the prevailing shortage of construction sand there.

September 2023: The South Vietnamese province Binh Thuan is not only known for its dragon fruit plantations, but also for its vast dune landscapes of red and white sand. These dune landscapes can provide a particular raw material: heavy sands containing titanium- and zirconium-bearing minerals. The CLIENT II project RENO-TITAN takes a closer look at these mineral sands. Experts on environmental radiology from Vietnam and Germany collaborate in RENO-TITAN to determine whether the residues from heavy sand mining activities are radioactively contaminated.

October 2023: On 18 September 2023, the Institute for Nuclear Science and Technology (INST) in cooperation with the Institute of Environmental Science, Engineering and Management (IESEM), under the Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City (IUH), organized a Kick-off Meeting of the Project “Sustainable Management and Reuse of Waste Containing Radioactive Residues - Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (NORM) from Titanium Industry in Vietnam” (hereinafter referred to as “RENO-TITAN”).

April 2023: Titanium-bearing minerals are used to produce white pigment and specialised products for applications ranging from medicine to aerospace. These minerals are often extracted from heavy mineral sands, which can lead to the enrichment of naturally occurring radioactive materials. The CLIENT II project RENO-TITAN investigates the framework conditions as well as technological and management-based methods for the sustainable and hazard-free utilisation of residues from the titanium industry in Vietnam. In the medium term, the project aims to help make Vietnam’s titanium industry fit for the future.