Vietnam, Russia ink deal on first nuclear plant: Reports

HANOI: Russia and Vietnam on Sunday signed a deal, worth an estimated four billion euros (5.6 billion dollars), for the Southeast Asian country's first nuclear power plant, an AFP reporter said.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev witnessed the signing, part of an effort to boost ties with his country's former Soviet-era communist ally.

An official with Russian state nuclear conglomerate Rosatom has told AFP the construction of a two-reactor plant is estimated at more than four billion euros.

Rosatom chief Sergei Kiriyenko, also in Hanoi, declined to confirm the cost. Vietnam wants to build eight nuclear facilities in the next two decades. Initial government plans call for four reactors, with a total capacity of 4,000 megawatts and at least one of them operational from 2020.

Kirieynko said that timeframe was "absolutely realistic."