Vietnamese nuclear plant workers to train in Russia

Some 2,000 Vietnamese will go to Russia beginning this year.

Vietnam-based conglomerate Song Da Corporation plans to send 2,000 workers and engineers to Japan and Russia for training from 2013. These workers will man Vietnam’s first two nuclear power plants.

SDC said these people will be the major labor force for the Ninh Thuan 1 and Ninh Thuan 2 nuclear power plants. It signed a contract in February with Russia’s NIAEP to send Vietnamese workers to Russia to build the Rostov nuclear power plant.

The Ninh Thuan 1 Nuclear Power Plant located at Phước Dinh in Ninh Thuan Province will consist of four 1,200 MWe VVER pressurized water reactors. The plant will be built by Atomstroyexpo, a subsidiary of Rosatom.

The plant will be owned and operated by state-owned electricity company EVN. Fuel will be supplied and used fuel will be reprocessed by Rosatom.

Construction of Ninh Thuan 1 will start by 2014 with the first unit to be commissioned by 2020. The construction is financed by the US$8 billion loan from Russia. Unit 2 will be commissioned in 2021, unit 3 in 2023 and unit 4 in 2024.