France’s EDF had challenged the $18 billion contract on multiple fronts
The Czech state-controlled company EDU II and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) signed final contracts to build two new nuclear power plants on 4 June, prime minister Petra Fiala said, after a court lifted an injunction preventing the deal’s closing.
The deal to build at least two new nuclear power plants at the existing Dukovany nuclear power station site was unblocked on Wednesday after an appeals court dismissed a lower court ruling that prevented the government from signing the deal with KHNP.
The Supreme Administrative Court said the earlier ruling was not in line with law, meaning the signing of the deal, estimated to be worth $18bn (€15.7bn), could go ahead.
The decision meant the biggest Czech procurement deal ever, and a key part of the country’s drive to replace ageing coal and nuclear units, could be signed.
France’s state power company EDF, which had submitted an offer to supply its EPR nuclear plants, had challenged the tender and won the injunction from a lower court last month, derailing the signing of the contract that was planned for 7 May, with a ceremony prepared and a South Korean delegation already en route to Prague.
However, EDU II, the state-controlled company building the new units, and KHNP appealed that ruling.
The court said on Wednesday it found the injunction issued by a lower court illegal and unverifiable.
“By cancelling the preliminary injunction with today’s judgment, the court lifted the ban on concluding a contract for the fulfilment of a public contract for the construction of a new nuclear power plant in the Dukovany location,” the court said.
Prague And KHNP Have Denied ‘State Aid’
EDF had tried to overturn the July 2024 decision to award KHNP the contract on multiple fronts. It had sought to cancel the contract through the European Commission on competition grounds, suggesting KHNP’s offer was so low that it implied state aid. Prague and KHNP have both denied any state aid.
The government, which will provide loans and a pricing scheme to make the project profitable, took an 80% stake in the EDU II firm running the project from state utility ČEZ in April, with ČEZ retaining 20%.
The Czechs also need to get new EU approval for state loans and an electricity price mechanism for the new facility after they expanded the project last year from one reactor – which won EU clearance – to two.
The project is for two new large-scale APR1000 plants, supplied by KHNP, to be built at Dukovany, in the southern Czech Republic about 50 km from the border with Austria.
The signing of the contract marks South Korea’s first overseas nuclear power station project since 2009, when KHNP won a contract to build four APR1400 plants at Barakah in the United Arab Emirates.
The Czech Republic has six commercially operational reactor units: four Russia-designed VVER-440 units at Dukovany and two larger VVER-1000 units at Temelín.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the six units provide about 36.7% of the country’s electricity production.
There are four Russia-designed VVER-440 units at the Dukovany nuclear power station. Courtesy ČEZ.
