Vietnam, Russia Ink Pact On Nuclear Energy Cooperation

Under the pact signed earlier this week in Hanoi between Vietnam Nuclear Energy Institute and the Russian Federal Agency for Atomic Energy, the two sides will cooperate in building a legal framework and training human resources for the domestic nuclear energy industry, EVN said in a statement.

"This is another step Russia has made in an effort to join the project to build Vietnam's first nuclear power plant," it added.

"The pact lays a good foundation for cooperation within the framework of the national program of development of nuclear energy and for active work in this direction," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying in the statement.

EVN said plant construction is expected to begin between 2013 and 2015, so that it will be operational from 2020.

The plant, which is expected to have a capacity of 2,000 megawatts, will cost around $4 billion to build, according to the statement.