Let \((\Omega,\Sigma,\mu)\) be a finite measure space and X and Y be real Banach spaces. It is shown that if \(T \colon L^\infty(\mu,X)\rightarrow Y\) is a \(\sigma \) -order continuousoperator and \(X ^{*} \) has the Radon-Nikodym property, Y is reflexive, then Tis a nuclear operator if and only if its conjugate operator \(T ^{*} :Y ^{*} \rightarrow L^1(\mu,X ^{*} )\) is nuclear. In this case, \(\|T\| _{\rm nuc}=\|T ^{*} \| _{\rm nuc}\) .