Vietnam to End Cooperation with Japan on Nuclear Power Plant Project

The Vietnamese government is reportedly planning to end its investment cooperation with Japan on the construction of a domestic nuclear power plant project that has been underway since 2009.

Headquarters of PetroVietnam (PVN). Photo by Yonhap News Agency

According to the state-run Vietnam News Agency (VNA) on January 9 (local time), the Vietnamese government held the fourth meeting of the Nuclear Power Plant Construction Promotion Committee in Hanoi on January 7, chaired by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh. The government decided to officially notify the Japanese side of its decision to suspend investment in the Ninh Thuan Nuclear Power Plant Unit 2 project and to prepare documents to terminate the existing investment cooperation.

Previously, in 2009, the Vietnamese government agreed to cooperate with Russia and Japan to build nuclear power plants, and selected the Russian state-owned nuclear company Rosatom as the contractor for Unit 1 in Ninh Thuan Province, but the project was halted. However, in 2024, in an effort to resolve power shortages, the government decided to resume nuclear power development and to construct two nuclear power units in Ninh Thuan Province. Russia secured the contract for Unit 1 in Ninh Thuan following President Vladimir Putin's visit to Vietnam in June of the same year, as part of its efforts to export nuclear power plants to Vietnam.

The Vietnamese government plans to build Units 1 and 2 of the Ninh Thuan Nuclear Power Plant by 2035 and to construct additional nuclear power plants with a total capacity of 8 GW by 2050. In addition to Russia, the government is also reaching out to other countries with nuclear technology to find partners for the construction of subsequent nuclear power plants.