South Korea remains confident about $18b nuclear deal put on hold by Czech court

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean officials on Wednesday downplayed a Czech court’s decision to put on hold an $18 billion project for South Korea to build two nuclear reactors in the country, describing it as a temporary setback and expressing confidence that the deal will eventually proceed.

A South Korean consortium led by the state-run Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power had expected to finalize the deal this week with a subsidiary of CEZ, the Czech Republic’s largest electricity supplier. However, a Czech court blocked CEZ from signing the contract while it reviews a complaint from French company EDF, which lost the bid to the South Koreans.

South Korean Industry Minister Ahn Dukgeun told reporters in Prague that the court’s decision would only delay the signing of the official contract, and that all other procedures would proceed on schedule, assuming that the deal goes through. He said that the Czech government clearly didn't anticipate the court’s decision to pause the agreement, and that CEZ plans to appeal.

It is not clear when the Czech Supreme Administrative Court could rule on that appeal.

“The Czech government did not think of (EDF’s claims) as a major problem and invited us for the scheduled” signing ceremony, Ahn said. “It seems that the Czech government’s judgement did not align with the court’s ruling.”

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said Wednesday his government respects the court’s decision, before adding: “I believe that the judges and the court realize how important this decision is and its impact on security of the Czech Republic and our national interests.”

Lee Ju-Ho, South Korea's acting president, said that Seoul would communicate closely with the Czech side to ensure that the deal is finalized quickly.

In July, CEZ selected KHNP over EDF as the preferred bidder to build two 1,000-megawatt nuclear reactors at the Dukovany plant. EDF filed a court complaint last week after the Czech Republic’s competition regulator rejected its appeal over the bidding process.

Before he was ousted last month over an ill-fated martial law imposition in December, former conservative South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol had pledged to boost the country’s nuclear power exports, arguing that they had suffered under the previous liberal government’s push to reduce domestic reliance on nuclear energy. Yoon’s government had set a goal of exporting 10 nuclear power reactors by 2030.