Russian Rosatom Pledged $1B Soft Loan for Vietnam Nuclear Power Plant

Russia’s VTB Bank, the second largest bank in the European country, is willing to provide $1 billion of soft loan for the state-owned Rosatom Nuclear Energy State Corporation (Rosatom) to help the company build a nuclear power plant in Vietnam, the Voice of Russia radio reported.VTB Bank is ready to disburse the sum for Rosatom, which has been hired to build the first nuclear power plant in Vietnam’s central province of Ninh Thuan, Valery Lukyanenko, a board of management member of the bank, was quoted as saying.Construction of the plant is estimated to cost $10 billion, he added.The radio also said Russian Premier Dimitry Medvedev said Moscow will provide loans for Rosatom to build the plant.Vietnam targets to build its first two nuclear power plants with combined capacity of 4,000 MW in 2014 with financial and technical assistance from Russia and Japan. Russia committed $10.5 billion in soft loan for Vietnam to develop its nuclear power program, which includes the building of ten other plants with total capacity of 10,700 MW by 2030.The Vietnamese nuclear power program was protested by many intellectuals who said it is too ambitious and economically unprofitable for the country. Vietnam has a gross domestic product (GDP) of around $110 billion and faces serious shortage of capital and expertise in nuclear power. (gafin.vn Feb 22)