Competition to land a nuclear power plant order from the Czech Republic has been reorganized into a two-runner race between Korea and France after the United States has withdrawn from the competition. The scale of the nuclear power plant project has also increased from one to four reactors and the project cost alone has reached 30 trillion won, expanding Korea’s anticipation for a nuclear power plant jackpot after the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
“With regard to the construction of Dukovany Nuclear Power Plant, Westinghouse is excluded from the negotiations due to its inability to meet necessary conditions which we demand,” the Czech government said on its website on Jan. 31. “The tender submitted by Westinghouse did not fulfill the conditions,” said Czech Minister of Industry and Trade Jozef Síkela. “We will continue to have negotiations with Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power and France’s EDF.”
KHNP and EDF have until April 15 to submit new bid proposals. The Czech government plans to complete the evaluation of the proposals within a month and select a preferred bidder in June. The new plant is expected to go live by 2036.
The Czech government also said it will award the contract to build three more reactors to the winning company, while scratching off Westinghouse from the list of bidders. So, the project is to build a total of four reactors. Experts say that the selection of the preferred bidder will be heavily affected by the fact that multiple reactors often share a single facility and can be built at one time to reduce costs.
The Czech Republic had planned to build one sub-1,200 MW pressurized water reactor in the Dukovany region but is now planning to add another unit in Dukovany and two more in Temelin, about 158 kilometers away from the Dukovany region, for a total of four units. “We will ask bidders to submit bids that include plans for the construction of the four reactors,” Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said.
The Czech nuclear order was initially expected to cost around 8 trillion won, but is expected to reach 30 trillion won as the project scale increases. According to sources in the nuclear power plant industry, the cost of building two reactors is about 15 trillion won.