French EDF supplements appeal over Czech nuclear tender

French company EDF, which bid for the contract to build two units at the Dukovany nuclear power plant, has added a further objection to its appeal against a decision by the Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS). The company said so in a press release. The ÚOHS ruled that the nuclear tender had been conducted properly. It reviewed the tender following complaints by EDF and US company Westinghouse, and rejected both. Westinghouse withdrew its appeal in February, while EDF’s appeal is now being reviewed by ÚOHS chairman Petr Mlsna. The contract with the selected supplier, South Korea’s KHNP, cannot be signed until a final decision has been issued.

„The additional submission concerns a new fact: the conclusion of a global settlement agreement between US company Westinghouse and South Korean companies KEPCO and KHNP. The agreement settles a dispute concerning Westinghouse’s intellectual property rights to technology offered by KHNP in the procurement process. This agreement implies that KHNP may not have secured the necessary intellectual property rights when it submitted its bid, raising questions about whether the tender conditions were met,“ the company said in a statement.

EDF and Westinghouse filed objections to the selection of their competitor in the tender in late August last year. They questioned the Korean company’s right to use the technology it had offered and the transparency of the process. EDF specifically argued that the rules on foreign subsidies had been breached. Both companies also described the contracting authority’s approach as unlawful, saying, among other things, that it had failed to comply with the fundamental principles of public procurement, particularly in its selection of the preferred supplier.

The ÚOHS rejected the objections, and both companies appealed to the office’s chairman, Petr Mlsna. Westinghouse withdrew both its objections and its appeal in February. Until a final decision is made on EDF’s appeal, ČEZ, as the contracting authority, may not sign a contract with the Korean winner of the tender.

The construction of new nuclear units in Czechia is expected to be the country’s largest contract. At current prices, the cost of the currently preferred option of building two reactors at Dukovany is 400 billion crowns. Over the next three to five years, ČEZ is also expected, under a government decision, to negotiate an option with the Koreans to build two further units at Temelín.