OREANDA-NEWS. August 10, 2015. The engineering subsidiary of Russia's Rosatom has signed a general framework agreement with Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) for construction of unit 1 of the planned Ninh Thuan nuclear power plant. The country's electricity use is set to triple in 15 years.

The document was signed on 30 July in Hanoi by NIAEP senior vice-president Vladimir Savushkin and EVN vice-president Nguyеn Cuong Lam in the presence of representatives of Rosatom and Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Rosatom said in a statement today that the signing ceremony, which took place during the first meeting of the joint Russian-Vietnamese working group for the Ninh Thuan 1 project, is a key milestone in the construction of Vietnam's first nuclear power plant.

"We and our Vietnamese partners are confident that the Russian nuclear power plant project under development will be the most efficient generation facility in the country and will meet all international safety requirements and quality standards," ASE-NIAEP-AEP general director Valery Limarenko said in the company statement.

Vietnamese officials announced in November they had chosen Rosatom's AES-2006 design for the plant at Ninh Thuan at Phuoc Dinh, increasing the planned capacity of the four unit plant by about 800 MWe. A second plant should follow based on a partnership with Japan.

Atomproekt based in Saint Petersburg will supply its version of the AES-2006 plant for at least the first two units. This design produces 1200 MWe for transmission over the grid and its replacement of the VVER-1000 units previously planned would add about 800 MWe to Ninh Thuan's future generating capacity across four units.

The reactors are to be built over 2017-23 as a turnkey project. Russia's Ministry of Finance is prepared to finance at least 85% of this first plant, to supply the nuclear fuel and take back the used fuel for the life of the plant.

Vietnam's nuclear power program is planned to feature three plants: Ninh Thuan will have a Phase I and a Phase II, while another plant is expected in a central area. These represent up to around 4800 MWe in capacity, which could be expanded further to 7100 MWe by 2030.

Today the US Energy Information Administration published a forecast for the Vietnamese power sector, saying, "Vietnam is poised to significantly transform its electrical power generation mix over the next two decades as it modernizes the country's agrarian economy to become a more industrialized nation." Figures showed the electricity sector expanding from around 42 GWe of generating capacity now to almost 140 GWe in 2030, at which time nuclear power could represent 8%.