Key events in planned nuclear plant construction in Czechia

This year, the government requested binding bids for the construction of up to four new reactors – not only at Dukovany, as originally planned, but also at Temelín. Representatives of France’s EDF submitted their bid today, while South Korea’s KHNP submitted its bid on Monday. Below is a selection of events surrounding the planned construction of new nuclear reactors in the Czech Republic:

March 8, 2021 – Elektrárna Dukovany II, part of the ČEZ Group, received a permit from the State Office for Nuclear Safety (SÚJB) to site a new nuclear facility at Dukovany.

March 25, 2021 – Then Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry and Transport Karel Havlíček (for ANO) said the final decision on the tender for the construction of a new unit would be left to the next government. A statement by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MPO) also indicated that the Czech Republic would not invite Chinese company CGN to bid. Four bidders remained: France’s EDF, South Korea’s KHNP, the Canadian-American Westinghouse and Russia’s Rosatom. The opposition criticized Russia’s participation.

March 31, 2021 – In a resolution, the Senate declared that China and Russia posed a security threat and that the government should not approach or invite bidders from those countries to take part in the tender for the construction of new nuclear units.

April 11, 2021 – President Miloš Zeman rejected warnings from Czech security services against including Chinese and Russian companies in the tender.

April 17, 2021 – Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) announced that Czech security forces had reasonable grounds to suspect that members of Russia’s GRU intelligence service were involved in the 2014 explosion at an ammunition depot in Vrbětice, in the Zlín region. The government subsequently excluded Russia’s Rosatom from the Dukovany tender.

June 1, 2021 – Elektrárna Dukovany II applied for a zoning decision for a new nuclear unit at Dukovany.

June 16, 2021 – The Chamber of Deputies excluded companies from Russia and China from the planned tender for a new Dukovany unit. Only technology from suppliers in countries that have acceded to the international Agreement on Government Procurement could be used for construction. Russia and China are not among them.

June 21, 2021 – Elektrárna Dukovany II began security screening of the three companies interested in the construction, inviting EDF, KHNP and Westinghouse.

November 27, 2021 – Minister Havlíček announced that the state had received all three security questionnaires from the bidders for the construction of a new unit.

March 2, 2022 – The government of Petr Fiala, formed after the October 2021 election, agreed that Minister of Industry and Trade Jozef Síkela (for STAN) could take the necessary steps to launch a tender for the construction of a new Dukovany unit.

March 17, 2022 – ČEZ launched a tender for the construction of a new nuclear unit at Dukovany.

June 30, 2022 – The European Commission (EC) announced that it had launched an investigation into the planned state aid for the expansion of Dukovany. The reason was uncertainty over whether the aid complied with European Union rules. The planned support includes, among other things, a low-interest state loan that would cover all construction costs, amounting to around 7.5 billion euros (almost 186 billion crowns). At the end of last September, after meeting with EC President Ursula von der Leyen, Prime Minister Fiala said he saw a strong chance that Czechia would receive the Commission’s approval for state aid for the construction of a new unit.

November 30, 2022 – ČEZ received three bids for the construction of a unit at Dukovany but did not disclose their details.

March 29, 2023 – ČEZ announced that Westinghouse would supply nuclear fuel to Dukovany from 2024. Fuel from Russia’s TVEL had been used until then, but after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, ČEZ decided to replace the supplier for security reasons.

It had already been decided that Westinghouse and France’s Framatome would jointly supply fuel to the Temelín power plant as well.

May 10, 2023 – ČEZ invited all three bidders for the construction of a new unit to submit final bids. In September, ČEZ extended the deadline for submitting final bids to October 31, from the previous deadline of October 2.

October 31, 2023 – All three registered bidders – Westinghouse, KHNP and EDF – submitted final bids for the construction of a new nuclear unit. Alongside these, the bidders also submitted non-binding bids for three further reactors. ČEZ subsequently evaluated the bids and submitted its evaluation report to the government for approval.

January 30, 2024 – Westinghouse signed a cooperation agreement with the Czech Energy Alliance, which represents the country’s largest technology companies in the nuclear energy sector. Under the agreement, the US company expects Czech industry to account for 70% of the construction of the new unit. EDF and KHNP had signed agreements earlier, pledging at least 65% participation by domestic companies.

January 31, 2024 – The government decided to invite EDF and KHNP to submit binding bids for the construction of up to four new reactors – at Temelín as well as Dukovany. Westinghouse will not continue in the competition; according to Minister of Industry and Trade Jozef Síkela (STAN), the company’s bid did not meet the stipulated requirements. The minister said the main problem was that it was not binding and therefore could not be compared with the other bids during the evaluation. The government also said the company’s bid did not clearly identify the entity responsible for the quality of the work.

April 4, 2024 – ČEZ announced that the deadline for submitting binding bids for the construction of nuclear units would be extended by two weeks, to April 30. EDF had requested the extension.

April 30, 2024 – EDF and KHNP submitted binding bids for the construction of up to four nuclear reactors. EDF representatives brought the documents to ČEZ headquarters this morning, while representatives of South Korea’s KHNP submitted their bid on Monday.