The Regional Court in Brno has rejected the lawsuit by French company EDF against the decision of the Czech Office for the Protection of Economic Competition (ÚOHS – Úřadu pro Ochranu Hospodářské Soutěže) on the tender for the construction of new units at the Dukovany NPP.
In July 2024, a South Korean consortium led by Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) was selected by ČEZ subsidiary Elektrárny Dukovany II (EDU-II) as the preferred bidder for the construction of up to four new NPP units at the Dukovany and Temelín NPP sites, with two reactors (units 5&6) confirmed for Dukovany.
KHNP won the tender against both US Westinghouse and France’s EDF. Both companies appealed to ÚOHS about the selection process. Westinghouse later withdrew its appeal and EDF’s was rejected by ÚOHS in April. The Czech authorities then scheduled the contract signing but the Brno Court, acting on a new complaint by EDF, ruled that the contract could not be signed until EDF’s complaint had been dealt with.
However, the engineering, procurement & construction (EPC) contract was finally signed earlier in June hours after the Czech Supreme Administrative Court (NSS – Nejvyšší Správní Soud) annulled the Brno court injunction that had stalled the project. The two companies signed the pre-prepared contract by email as soon as the Brno District Court’s injunction was dismissed by NSS. The Brno court has now completed its own consideration of EDF’s complaint and has dismissed the lawsuit. EDF can still appeal to the NSS.
EDU II welcomed the dismissal of the lawsuit and KHNP also wants to continue preparing the project. According to Prime Minister Petr Fiala, the rejection of the lawsuit was expected, and he is convinced that the state will bring the project to a successful conclusion. The first unit in Dukovany should be completed in 2036.
EDF alleges that the KHNP offer price and the inclusion of a guarantee that the construction would not be delayed or become more expensive, would be “unfeasible without illegal state aid given the prices in the nuclear industry” and that if KHNP had state support it would breach European Union rules. The European Union is conducting a preliminary review “to assess whether potential foreign financial contributions received by the Party (KHNP) constitute foreign subsidies and, if so, whether those foreign subsidies distort the internal market with respect to the project”.
EDU II said the tender for the supplier of the new nuclear units “was carried out in all phases in a fully transparent manner and under fair conditions”. The Czech government says that according to the “expert opinion of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the EPC contract with the company KHNP was not subject to the Regulation on Foreign Subsidies. This was due to both the nature of the contract and because the tender procedure had been initiated before the effective date of that Regulation.
