Shear viscosity η is calculated for the nuclear matter described as a system of interacting nucleons with the van der Waals (VDW) equation of state. The Boltzmann-Vlasov kinetic equation is solved in terms of the plane waves of the collective overdamped motion. In the frequent-collision regime, the shear viscosity depends on the particle-number density n through the mean-field parameter a, which describes attractive forces in the VDW equation. In the temperature region T = 15−40 MeV, a ratio of the shear viscosity to the entropy density s is smaller than 1 at the nucleon number density n = (0.5 − 1.5) n 0 , where n 0 = 0.16 fm −3 is the particle density of equilibrium nuclear matter at zero temperature. A minimum of the η/s ratio takes place somewhere in a vicinity of the critical point of the VDW system. Large values of η/s ≫ 1 are, however, found in both the low-density, n ≪ n 0 , and high-density, n > 2n 0 , regions. This makes the ideal hydrodynamic approach inapplicable for these densities.