Vietnam invites Russia to bid at nuclear center project tender

MOSCOW. Dec 1 (Interfax) - Vietnam has invited Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom to bid at a tender for the right to build a Nuclear Science and Technology Center.

Vietnamese Science and Technology Minister Huynh Thanh Dat presented a tender request for a contract to draft a feasibility study for the center to Nikolai Spassky, Rosatom deputy general director, in the presence of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko And Deputy Vietnamese Prime Minister Le Van Thanh.

Russia and Vietnam in May 2019 signed a memorandum on a project to build a nuclear research and technology center in Vietnam.

Vietnam approved a prefeasibility study for the project in 2018. Rosatom and the Vietnamese Ministry of Science and Technology signed a memorandum of to build the center in June 2017. Earlier, in February 2017, Rosatom presented Vietnam with a project for a nuclear center based on a research reactor.

In accordance with Vietnam's requirements, the research center will include a multi-functional pressurized water pool-type research reactor with a nominal capacity of up to 15 MW. It will work with laboratories producing radioisotopes for nuclear medicine, groundwater, soil and mineral analyses for the mining industry as well as for carrying out research in materials science.

Vietnam's parliament in November 2016 voted against plans to build two 4,000 MW nuclear power plants in partnership with Russia and Japan due to a lack of funds.