South Korean power giant KHNP has won a billion-dollar tender to build two nuclear units at a Czech power plant, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on Wednesday.
KHNP beat France’s EDF in the tender starting in 2022 for a new reactor at the Soviet Dukovany power plant.
But Prague later said it was seeking bids for a total of four new units: two for each of its two nuclear plants in Dukovany and Temelin.
“The Korean bid was better in all the criteria evaluated,” Fiala told reporters.
“We have decided to build two units in Dukovany for now,” Fiala said, adding that the government will discuss an option for two more units in Temelin.
Fiala said the price offered by KHNP exceeded expectations, reaching about 200 billion Czech crowns ($8.65 billion) per unit if two units are built.
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He added that Czech companies will participate in about 60% of the construction.
The government said earlier it expected to sign an agreement with the winner next March, construction to begin in 2029 and the first new reactor to come online in 2036.
EDF lobbied hard for the contracts and French President Emmanuel Macron visited Prague in March to promote its bid.
CEZ currently operates six nuclear units at the two plants located in the south of the country.
Industry and Trade Minister Jozef Sikela told reporters on Wednesday that the units accounted for about 30 percent of electricity production in the Czech Republic.
“It will be about 50 percent in the future,” Sikelá said, calling nuclear power “the pride of Czech energy production.”
The government earlier excluded US giant Westinghouse from the tender due to flaws in its bid and Russia’s Rosatom and China’s CGN over security concerns.
Source: AFP