Vietnam's first 2 nuclear power plants may cost $12 bil: Official

Construction of Vietnam's first two nuclear power plants, with combined capacity of 4,000 megawatts, may cost up to $12 billion, an official at the investor in the plants, state-run Vietnam Electricity Group, or EVN, said Tuesday.

The two plants, each with two 1,000-megawatt reactors, will be built in the southern coastal province of Ninh Thuan, 300 kilometers north of Ho Chi Minh City, Phan Minh Tuan, the director of EVN's Nuclear Power & Renewable Energy Projects Pre-Investment Board, told Dow Jones Newswires at an energy conference.

Tuan said the figure will cover all the costs related to the construction of the plants, from personnel training, site clearance and construction to testing.

The Vietnamese government will sign a contract with Russian energy group Rosatom for building the plants during a Vietnam visit by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, he said. He didn't provide the value of the contract.

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