A future government including ANO would maintain the current tender for the construction of two new nuclear units at the Dukovany power plant, ANO deputy leader Alena Schillerova said yesterday on CNN Prima News.
She did not question the selection of the South Korean company KHNP as the winner of the tender, saying she assumed that the tender committee selected the most advantageous bid.
The current government decided last July to build two new nuclear reactors, eventually choosing the bid from KHNP over the French company EDF. However, the government has not yet been able to sign the final agreement with KHNP, as it was blocked by a preliminary injunction from the Brno Regional Court.
“There is nothing we would block here,” Schillerova said yesterday. The opposition ANO, which according to electoral models is the favourite in October’s lower house elections, had earlier recommended that the government leave the signing of the Dukovany deal to the next cabinet, given the legal uncertainty in the Czech Republic and with the European Commission. Schillerova said yesterday that the government should have postponed the scheduled signing of the final agreement.
Jan Skopecek (ODS), deputy speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, said on Prima that criticism of the events surrounding the tender would be valid if the signing of the agreement had been postponed due to a government error, adding that the cheapest and best contractor had been chosen. He said that the government respected the court’s decision, which no one had expected.
The company Elektrarna Dukovany II (EDU II), which is in charge of the nuclear tender, wants to defend itself against the interim measure of the Brno Regional Court in the Dukovany case. It will file a special cassation complaint with the Supreme Administrative Court (NSS), it said. Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) believes that the courts will decide on the dispute over the tender as quickly as possible.
The construction of new nuclear units in the Czech Republic should be the largest domestic order. Industry and Trade Minister Lukas Vlcek (Mayors and Independents, STAN) has repeatedly said that the contracts guarantee a 30 percent share of Czech companies in the project and the overall goal of 60 percent involvement of domestic industry is also valid. The cost of the currently preferred construction of two reactors at Dukovany is 407 billion crowns at current prices. The first unit at Dukovany should be ready in 2036.
