Czech Republic excludes Rosatom from candidates for Dukovany nuke

PRAGUE, Apr 19 (PRIME) – The Czech government has excluded Russian state nuclear power corporation Rosatom from the list of candidates for participation in a tender for construction of the Dukovany nuclear power plant, Czech Deputy Prime Minister Karel Havlicek said in a news briefing on Monday.

“The government has made a unanimous decision that only three firms will remain candidates for participation in a tender for construction of the Dukovany nuclear power plant: U.S.‘s Westinghouse, France’s EdF, and South Korea’s KHNP. Russian firm Rosatom will not participate in the tender in the light of the newly discovered information,” he said.

The winner of the tender for construction of a 6 billion euro unit of the Dukovany plant should be chosen before 2024, and construction should be finished in 2036.

Late on April 17, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said that the country suspects Russian intelligence service in involvement in a blast of an ammo warehouse in Vrbetice in 2014. The Czech Republic expelled 18 Russian diplomats, and Russia retaliated by expelling 20 employees of the Czech government, denying an possible involvement in the incident.

End %%md/jst%%