Ninh Thuan nuclear power project

Sites and the 2009 investment policy

Ninh Thuận 1 was planned for Phước Dinh commune, on land that was part of Thuận Nam district in Ninh Thuận province before the province merged into Khánh Hòa on 1 July 2025^[1][2]. Ninh Thuận 2 was planned for Vĩnh Hải commune, formerly of Ninh Hải district in the same province^[1][3]. Wikidata gives the Ninh Thuận 1 site as 11.41 degrees north, 108.97 degrees east and the Ninh Thuận 2 site as 11.69 degrees north, 109.18 degrees east; as of September 2026 both Wikidata entries still describe the plants as cancelled, a description the 2024 restart made outdated^[24][25].

The National Assembly approved the investment policy for both plants on 25 November 2009 under Resolution 41/2009/QH12, covering two plants of two reactor units each with a combined capacity of more than 4,000 MW, about 2,000 MW per plant^[1][2]. Russia's Atomstroyexport, a subsidiary of the state nuclear corporation Rosatom, was selected in 2010 to build Ninh Thuận 1, initially proposed with VVER-1000 pressurised water reactors at a quoted price of about 8 billion US dollars for 2,000 MW^[1][2]. Japan was named technical partner for Ninh Thuận 2, proposing a design intended to withstand earthquakes and tsunamis after the Fukushima accident^[1][2][3].

Suspension in 2016

The National Assembly voted on 22 November 2016 to stop the investment policy, issuing Resolution 31/2016/QH14 the same day^[4][5]. A government spokesman said the decision was made not due to technology or safety reasons but because of the country's economic situation at the time, adding that both the Russian and Japanese technology on offer were considered highly safe^[6]. Funds were redirected toward other infrastructure, including the north to south expressway, a high speed railway, a coastal road and Long Thanh international airport^[6].

The resolution instructed the Government to help the affected communes reorganise production and stabilise livelihoods after the project's planning was lifted, without setting a compensation figure^[5]. The investment policy remained suspended for eight years^[1][7].

Restart, 2024 to 2025

The Communist Party Central Committee agreed to restart the project, and the Government submitted a proposal to the National Assembly dated 25 November 2024^[8]. On 30 November 2024 the Assembly passed Resolution 174/2024/QH15 of its 8th session, continuing the investment policy for Ninh Thuận 1 and Ninh Thuận 2^[7][8]. The government's news portal reported that Russia had agreed to support construction of a 2,000 MW plant and Japan had committed technical and financial support for the second plant, with both targeted to begin operation before 2035^[9].

On 19 February 2025 the Assembly passed Resolution 189/2025/QH15, setting special mechanisms for the project, including parallel negotiation with foreign partners during investment approval, streamlined selection of contractors for turnkey packages, land compensation at 1.5 times the standard rate, and a rule returning 70 percent of the province's increased tax revenue from the project to the local budget^[10][11]. The Prime Minister approved an adjusted national Power Development Plan VIII on 15 April 2025 under Decision 768/QĐ-TTg, setting a combined capacity of 4,000 to 6,400 MW for the two plants to be brought into operation between 2030 and 2035, within a longer plan to add about 8,000 MW of nuclear capacity nationally by 2050^[11].

The Politburo issued Resolution 70-NQ/TW on national energy security on 20 August 2025, directing faster delivery of both plants, and two days later the Government issued Resolution 249/NQ-CP to implement the special mechanisms, targeting completed international agreements for Ninh Thuận 1 by September 2025 and for Ninh Thuận 2 by December 2025^[13][14]. At a steering committee meeting on 22 October 2025 the Prime Minister reported 9 of 18 assigned tasks completed, including the Power Plan VIII adjustment, with the state utility EVN named investor for Ninh Thuận 1 and PetroVietnam named investor for Ninh Thuận 2^[14].

Reactor technology and partners

By March 2026 the reactor design proposed for Ninh Thuận 1 had moved from the original VVER-1000 to Russia's newer VVER-1200 model. Vietnam and Russia signed an intergovernmental agreement in Moscow on 23 March 2026 covering two VVER-1200 units with a combined capacity of 2,400 MW, using Russia's Leningrad-2 plant as the reference design^[18]. Vietnamese reporting described the agreement as the legal framework for construction and for long term cooperation on peaceful nuclear energy^[18].

Ninh Thuận 2's partnership took a different path. On 8 January 2026 Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính directed the Ministry of Industry and Trade to notify Japan formally that Vietnam would not continue investment cooperation on the plant, while asking that the technical documents Japan had already produced be kept for possible reuse^[16]. PetroVietnam and the ministry were tasked with proposing a new partner with advanced reactor technology suited to the changed circumstances^[16]. By April 2026 PetroVietnam and South Korea's Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) had signed a memorandum of understanding on nuclear power cooperation, witnessed by General Secretary Tô Lâm and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung; no construction agreement had followed by September 2026^[23].

Resettlement and site clearance

Resettlement centres on the hamlets closest to each site. At Vĩnh Trường hamlet in Phước Dinh commune, 617 households of 2,910 people were recorded as affected by Ninh Thuận 1, of which 600 needed resettlement onto a prepared area of 64.84 hectares; at Thái An hamlet in Vĩnh Hải commune, 844 households of 2,319 people were affected by Ninh Thuận 2, of which 553 needed resettlement, including relocation of about 1,439 graves. The province asked the central budget for 3.2 trillion dong to fund this work, as reported on 2 July 2025^[12].

Clearance progressed through 2026, though the reported household counts do not form a consistent series. On 14 January 2026 the land inventory for Ninh Thuận 1 was reported complete across 449.37 hectares, with land origin verified for 93 percent of that area, and a groundbreaking ceremony for resettlement infrastructure was held the next day; inventory and verification for Ninh Thuận 2's 534 affected households was already complete^[17]. That 534 is lower than the 844 households Dân trí reported as affected by the same plant in July 2025^[12], and no fetched source explains the difference. By 7 May 2026 the count had grown to 1,129 affected households across 515 hectares for Ninh Thuận 1 and 869 households and organisations across 480.3 hectares for Ninh Thuận 2, with full clearance targeted for the second quarter of 2026 and handover to contractors set for 15 June 2026^[19].

On 5 September 2026 the Government issued Resolution 66.26/2026/NQ-CP, setting livelihood support and resettlement terms for land users whose holdings originated in encroachment or unclear title and who therefore do not qualify for ordinary compensation, applying specifically to the Ninh Thuận nuclear sites in Khánh Hòa province^[22].

Splitting the project, August 2026

On 24 August 2026 the National Assembly voted to split the project into three independent undertakings: a compensation, support and resettlement project, the Ninh Thuận 1 plant, and the Ninh Thuận 2 plant^[20]. Of the 481 delegates taking part, 476 voted in favour, which the Assembly recorded as 95.2 percent of its total membership rather than of the delegates voting^[20]. The Assembly’s own reasoning was that the original 2009 resolution predated the current Law on Public Investment and had never named or defined the two plants as separate projects, leaving each without a clean legal basis for procedures that need to run on separate schedules^[20][21]. The change was issued as Resolution 44/2026/QH16 of an extraordinary session of the 16th National Assembly^[21].

A steering committee created under Decision 72/QĐ-TTg was tasked with coordinating schedules, shared technical infrastructure and responsibilities for nuclear safety, security and environmental protection across the three resulting projects^[20].

Status in September 2026

Clearance of the Ninh Thuận 2 site had reached about 97.5 percent by early September 2026, with the remaining area expected to be handed over soon after^[23]. On 8 September 2026 PetroVietnam chief executive Lê Mạnh Cường met KEPCO chairman Kim Dong-cheol in South Korea to discuss implementing their April 2026 cooperation agreement, though the choice of reactor technology and a construction partner for Ninh Thuận 2 remained open^[23]. For Ninh Thuận 1, Vietnam's agreement with Russia continued toward a construction timeline that, as reported in October 2025, aimed at groundbreaking in the first quarter of 2029 and commercial operation in the fourth quarter of 2035^[15].