The Czech Competition Office (UOHS) announced on Wednesday that it had suspended the signing of a nuclear deal between the Czech Republic and the South Korean group KHNP, valued at several billion dollars. KHNP’s victory in a tender for the construction of two nuclear power plants in the Czech Republic was challenged by two unsuccessful competitors: the French EDF and the American Westinghouse.
KHNP won this tender in July to build two units at the Dukovany power plant, but the French group EDF and the American Westinghouse filed appeals against this decision.
According to him, this decision will give the UOHS time to evaluate the resources, without “suggesting (…) how the office will decide in this case.” The UOHS would not have been able to make a decision if the contract had already been signed, explained Martin Svanda.
EDF guarantees compliance with the “principles of fair trade and transparency”
During his visit to Prague in September, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol suggested that KHNP could cede part of the contract to Westinghouse, as it has done in the past in the United Arab Emirates. The EDF had indicated that it sought to “ensure that the tender process complies with the principles of fair trade and transparency, particularly in a European context.”
The state-controlled Czech energy group CEZ operates two nuclear power plants: Temelin and Dukovany, both located in the south of the country, which represent around 30% of the total electricity production of the Czech Republic. With the two new units and the small modular reactors to be built by 2050, nuclear energy could account for 50% of the Czech energy mix.
KHNP offered to build the two new units for approximately 200 billion Czech crowns ($8.5 billion) each. Prague plans to finalize the agreement with KHNP in March 2025, which would allow construction to begin in 2029 and the first new reactor to be tested in 2036.
Source: BFM TV
