Westinghouse of the US and France's EDF have filed a complaint with the Czech anti-trust office (UOHS) over the selection of South Korea's KHNP in the country’s €16bn tender to build two new reactors at the  Dukovany nuclear power plant (NPP).

UOHS confirmed the filings. “The Office for the Protection of Competition received the proposals from American company Westinghouse and from the French group EDF against steps of the tender commencer in the tender process on the construction of nuclear unit/units,” UOHS spokesperson Martin Svanda was quoted as saying by the Czech Press Agency (CTK).  

Last month, the Czech government announced that two new nuclear units at Dukovany will be built by KHNP following the recommendation from majority-state-owned energy utility CEZ, which oversees the tender. It followed a surprise ejection of Westinghouse from the tender in January. With a price of CZK200bn (€8bn) per nuclear unit, the project is poised to be the largest investment in Czechia’s history.

The Korea Times wrote on August 27 that Westinghouse argues that KHNP does not have the right to export its technology. “KHNP’s APR100 and APR1400 plant designs utilise Westinghouse-licensed Generation II System 80 technology. KHNP neither owns the underlying technology nor has the right to sublicense it to a third party without Westinghouse consent,” the statement by the US company reads.

The Korean company developed the APR1000 alongside the APR1400, but its technologies derive from Westinghouse which asserts the intellectual property rights and the two sides are involved in international arbitration, CTK noted.  

“Due to historical agreements and regulation set by the Nuclear Suppliers Group […] Seoul must obtain approval from the US Department of Energy to export nuclear power plants and technology,” The Korea Times wrote.

Several Czech energy analysts warned that disputes between suppliers could delay the Dukovany tender, which already has an ambitious completion timeline, but the country’s cabinet is confident it won’t be the case. Minister of Transportation Martin Kupka (of the neoliberal ODS) pointed out that 200 experts in law, economy and energy were involved in the process, which has previously been criticised by the Czech branch of the anti-corruption NGO Transparency International.  

CEZ argues that the robust tender has a security exemption which gives CEZ and the Czech government the right not to abide by the public procurement legislation. “The public procurement is taking place on the basis of security exemption and so the participant cannot challenge the process of the public procurement at UOHS,” CEZ spokesperson Ladislav Kriz was quoted as saying by CTK.   

Rebeka Hengalova, energy analyst at the Prague office of the EU affairs-focused think-tank Europeum, told bne IntelliNews in Prague that “the Czech Republic did not state according to which requirements it chose to select KHNP” and that this was not possible to assess from the publicly available information.

When announcing the selection of KHNP in July, Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) said at a press conference that “the Korean offer was better in practically all the evaluated criteria”.