Vietnam’s Russian-funded nuclear power plant faces six-year delay

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Vietnam signed an agreement in October 2010 for Russia’s Atomstroyexport, the engineering arm of Rosatom, to build the Ninh Thuan I Nuclear Power Plant, which will consist of two VVER-1000 or VVER-1200 reactors. In November 2010, Vietnam signed a separate agreement with a Japanese consortium that includes Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Toshiba and Hitachi for two 1000-MW Gen III units at the Ninh Thuan II project.

"From our point of view, the project is developing slower than it could. In 2015, the feasibility study of the project was completed, it is now being considered by the government of Vietnam. Initially, the period of 2021-2022 was named, now it is 2027-2028," Rosatom’s Deputy Director Kirill Komarov said at an industry forum.

In March this year, Vietnamese government decided to push back plans to open its first nuclear power plant until 2028 but it did not specify whether it was the Ninh Thuan I or Ninh Thuan II.

Nguyen Cuong Lam, Deputy Director of Vietnam Electricity Corp., the investor of the two nuclear power projects, said in December last year the feasibility study for the Japanese-funded plant, Ninh Thuan II, will be submitted to the Vietnamese government within 2016. The feasibility study for Ninh Thuan I was submitted in September 2015, the state-run Cong Thuong Newspaper reported December 2, 2015.