The feasibility study on the nuclear power plant to be built in southern Ninh Thuan Province is scheduled for approval by the end of the first quarter of next year, a chief nuclear official said on Monday.
The Russian consulting firm E4-KIEP-EPT will announce its amended feasibility study on the project in August, Doan The Vinh, deputy head of the Department of Nuclear and Thermal Power, told
Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper in a recent interview.
“The Ministry of Science and Technology will need around six months to assess the study, while the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment will also have to assess its environment impact report,” Vinh said.
This means the main committee set up to evaluate the project will only receive the full feasibility study at the end of this year.
Then, it will take the committee another three months to finish evaluation, as per current regulations, he added.
“The feasibility study will thus only be approved by the end of the first quarter of 2015,” Vinh concluded, adding that this year-long process is done “step by step and on a schedule.”
Vinh rejected allegations that the project is making slow progress.
“We are not behind schedule as the plan has been adjusted in this case,” he said.
The 2014 groundbreaking deadline, which proved unreasonable, was set in 2008, when Vietnam had yet to develop the law on nuclear power and still lacked experience, Vinh said.
The schedule was adjusted following the creation of the nuclear law and guidance and consultancy, he added.
The Ninh Thuan nuclear power project consists of two plants, Ninh Thuan 1 and 2. Once put into operation, they will become the country’s first nuclear power plants.
The two plants are among the five nuclear power facilities to be set up in the central region between 2020 and 2030 under a plan approved by the Vietnamese government, given forecasts that the country will face a serious shortage of power by 2020.
Vietnam has decided to use Russian technology for the first facility and Japanese expertise for the second.
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Đăng ký: VietNam News