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Kyodo: Vietnam may delay construction of nuclear power plants with Russia, Japan

According to Kyodo, the government was asked to reconsider plans to build nuclear power plants, as under the current conditions it will be difficult to allocate sufficient funding for these projects

TOKYO, November 7. /TASS/. Vietnam may postpone the construction of nuclear power plants with the participation of Russia and Japan because of financial problems, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported on Monday citing some government sources.

According to Kyodo, in October the government was asked to reconsider plans to build nuclear power plants, as under the current conditions it will be "extremely difficult" to allocate sufficient funding for these projects.

In accordance with the strategy of development of electric power industry until 2030, Hanoi plans to build and put into operation 13 nuclear power units with a total capacity of 15 Gigawatts with the help of its foreign partners. The nuclear power plants will provide 10% of the total electricity produced in that country.

The project to build the country’s first nuclear power plant in the central Ninh Thuan province where Russia’s Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation is the partner is being implemented with the use of advanced Russian technologies at the expense of a targeted preferential loan provided by Moscow. It was previously assumed that the construction would begin in 2014, and the station was due to be put into operation by 2020. However, these deadlines have been shifted, since Vietnam’s government decided to further explore the potential environmental risks of nuclear power plants with the assistance of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The plan envisaged that Japan was to begin the construction of the second nuclear power plant in Ninh Thuan province.