The government of Vietnam has solved all problems relating to the cancellation of two nuclear power projects which received support by Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation ROSATOM and Japanese partners.

Graphics of Ninh Thuan nuclear power plant. Photo: EVNNPB

The government has terminated consultancy contracts with Russian and Japanese partners after the National Assembly (NA) decided to abandon the projects in November 2016 (seven years after the approval of the investment plans), the government said in a report sent to the ongoing NA session.

Before the revocation, Russian and Japanese partners had offered overseas training for 450 students and conducted feasibility studies for Ninh Thuan 1 and Ninh Thuan 2 Nuclear Power Projects with total capacity of 4,000 megawatts (MW).

Japanese partners required no compensation if Vietnam committed to keep the feasibility studies and the location for Ninh Thuan 2 project in case of using it in the future to avoid waste.

Meanwhile, Russian partners might require compensation and the request would depend on Vietnam’s decision on the construction of the Center for Nuclear Energy Science and Technology which is planned to be located in the southern province of Dong Nai.

The government also said the cancellation of the nuclear projects caused no harm to the national power security and public debt.

The government has prepared alternatives for the abandonment, including 6,000 MW from coal-fired power and LNG-to-power by 2030 as well as increasing import from China, Laos, and Malaysia.

The investment in coal-fired and gas-fueled power projects would cause no negative effects on the country's public debt as they would be conducted via the build-operate-transfer (BOT) and build-own-operate (BOO) formats, the government said in the report.

Ninh Thuan, meanwhile, has received significant support in developing hydropower, renewable energy, giant Ca Na LNG complex (with a possible investment of US$8 billion), and the application of Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) of 9.8 US cents/kWh by the end of 2020, VnExpress reported.