Cranberry Township, Pa.-based Westinghouse Electric Company and France’s EDF are protesting the Czech Republic’s recent decision to award a multi-billion-dollar nuclear tender to South Korea’s KHNP.
Specifically, Westinghouse and Électricité de France SA, commonly known as EDF, a French multinational electric utility company owned by the government of France, filed formal appeals with the Czech Anti-Monopoly Office to protest the supplier choice made by ČEZ Group, a conglomerate of 96 companies, 72 of them in the Czech Republic, which primarily generates, distributes, trades in, and sells electricity and heat, and deals with natural gas and coal extraction.
The Czech competition office (UOHS) confirmed in a statement that it has received protests from the two unsuccessful bidders.
“UOHS has received an appeal against the sponsor’s approach to the tender procedure for the construction of one or more new nuclear reactors, not only from the American company Westinghouse but also from the French group EDF,” said UOHS.
CEZ in July selected Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) over EDF as the preferred bidder for the construction of two new nuclear reactors at the Dukovany power plant. According to Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, the price offered by KHNP beat expectations, reaching around 200 billion Czech koruna ($8.65 billion) per unit if two units are built.
Westinghouse, which lost its bid in January, confirmed its appeal in a statement Monday and accused its Korean competitor of using its technology without authorization.
Westinghouse said the tender required vendors to certify they possess the right to transfer and sublicense the nuclear technology offered in their bids to CEZ and local suppliers.
Westinghouse said it submitted a proposal to CEZ to deliver the advanced AP1000® reactor – the world’s only operating Generation III+ reactor with fully passive safety systems, modular construction design, and the smallest footprint per MWe.
“In addition to unlawfully using U.S. technology, deploying the APR1000 over the AP1000 reactor would also export the creation of tens of thousands of Czech and U.S. clean energy jobs to Korea, including 15,000 jobs from Westinghouse’s home state of Pennsylvania,” said the company’s statement.
KHNP’s APR1000 and APR1400 plant designs utilize 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’s consent.
Further, only Westinghouse has the legal right to obtain the required approval from the United States government to export its technology, according to its statement.
“Westinghouse will continue to vigorously defend its intellectual property rights and compliance with U.S. export control laws via the ongoing international arbitration and U.S. litigation, respectively,” the company said, noting that a decision in the arbitration is not expected before the second half of 2025.
That timeframe could affect the Czech Republic’s largest-ever energy investment as the country attempts to expand nuclear energy as coal-fired power plants are decommissioned. Prague said it expected to sign a deal with the winner by March, with construction to begin in 2029, and the first new reactor launched in trial operation in 2036.
EDF said in a statement that its appeal seeks “to ensure that the tender process adheres to the principles of fair trade and transparency, notably in a European context.”