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Russia's Rosatom signs pact with Vietnam; talks begin on power reactor project

Russia's Rosatom signs pact with Vietnam; talks begin on power reactor project

Time of India14-05-2025
New Delhi: Rosatom and Vietnam have signed an interdepartmental roadmap for the development of nuclear technologies up to 2030, covering the construction of a nuclear science and technology centre, fuel supply for the Da Lat research reactor, and personnel training for Vietnam's nuclear industry.
The agreement was signed by Alexey Likhachev, Director General of
Rosatom State Corporation
, and Nguyen Manh Hung, Minister of Science and Technology of Vietnam.
As part of the cooperation, Vietnam will also participate in the Consortium 'International Research Center based on the MBIR reactor'. Rosatom will provide training support and technological assistance to develop Vietnam's nuclear research capacity.
'For decades, research has been the flagship activity of our cooperation. In the 1980s, Soviet specialists restarted a research reactor built by the Americans, and now Vietnamese specialists have ordered us a new research reactor. We have already entered the site in the south of the country, in Dong Nai province, near Ho Chi Minh City. And that is where a powerful, modern, and, presumably, the best research reactor in Southeast Asia will appear soon," said Alexey Likhachev.
He added, 'For our part, we invite our colleagues to Dimitrovgrad to conduct research on our promising multi-purpose fast reactor. In addition, this visit has marked the transition to a new stage of cooperation – the project to build a large nuclear power plant. We offer our 'bestseller' – the VVER-1200 reactor. Certainly, negotiations should take place to clarify the technical appearance and financial support. These negotiations have started today. It will certainly be a great honour and responsibility for us to build a flagship power reactor in Southeast Asia, but here we are at the very beginning of the journey.'
The roadmap builds on decades of bilateral nuclear cooperation and marks the beginning of negotiations on building a full-scale nuclear power plant using Russian VVER-1200 reactor technology.
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