Hanoi is restarting its civilian nuclear programme nearly a decade after cancelling it over cost and safety concerns
Vietnam and Russia signed on 14 January an agreement to increase cooperation on nuclear power generation, marking a potentially crucial development in Hanoi’s plans to revive abandoned plans to build commercial reactors.
The agreement was signed between Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy corporation Rosatom and Vietnam’s state-owned power utility EVN during a visit to Hanoi by Russian prime minister Mikhail Mishustin and Rosatom chief executive officer Alexey Likhachev.
Earlier, Vietnam’s prime minister Pham Minh Chinh urged Russia to help the Southeast Asian nation with the development of a nuclear power programme as the government in Hanoi bids to meet projected power demand.
Chinh made the statement at a meeting on 13 January with Likhachev, the third meeting between the duo in six months. Chinh urged Russia to support Vietnam in human resource training and technology transfer for a nuclear programme.
In December, lawmakers asked the government to resume the development of the Southeast Asian country’s nuclear power programme after a vote on 30 November, according to the official government news portal.
Programme Will See 4,000 MW Of Nuclear
The central committee of the communist party of Vietnam had already agreed to restarting Hanoi’s nuclear programme.
The programme will involve building two nuclear power stations with a combined capacity of 4,000 MW in the central province of Ninh Thuan.
Vietnam had planned the two stations as far back as 2009, but the National Assembly rejected the proposal in 2016 on cost grounds.
Hanoi had selected Rosatom and Japan Atomic Power Company to construct the plants, agreeing to a loan of $8bn (€7.8bn) from Russia for the first facility, with construction originally planned to start in 2014.
The government estimates that power consumption will reach 1,200 TWh by 2045 compared to 1,000 TWh in the eight national power development plan, which provides targets for 2030 and “a vision” towards net-zero in 2050.
According to a report by accountancy company PwC, Vietnam’s expected economic growth over the next three decades means a need for 150 GW in installed capacity by 2030, and 500 GW by 2050, from about 80 GW today.
