Translated material
Atomic battle
Czech politicians do not want to give up the “contract of the century” to Russia
The Czech Temelín NPP has begun the transition to Russian-made nuclear fuel. By the end of September, the process of replacing fuel in the first block of the station should be completely completed. Next spring it will be the turn of the second unit, which for now continues to operate on fuel from the American company Westinghouse.Passions around Temelin have been raging for almost a quarter of a century. Construction of the station, which began in 1987 in the south of the country, caused discontent in neighboring Austria - environmentalists there blocked the border with the Czech Republic several times in protest. Today, attention to Temelin is associated with a tender for the construction of two new blocks of the station. In addition to Temelin, the winner of the tender will receive a contract for the construction of two units of another Czech nuclear power plant, Dukovany, and one unit of the Slovak Jaslovske Bohunice. The order with a total value of about 20 billion euros is the largest in the history of the Czech Republic and one of the largest in Europe. There are three contenders: Westinghouse, the French Areva and a consortium consisting of the Russian Atomstroyexport, OKB Gidropress and the Czech Skoda-YAM.
Until recently, the Russian-Czech application was considered the most significant. Firstly, the VVER-type reactor technology proposed by Russia has long been successfully used not only at Czech, but also at a number of other European nuclear power plants. Secondly, participation of the Czech side in the project would provide local companies with up to 70% of all orders. “Who, if not a Czech company, should complete the construction of Temelin? - Miroslav Fiala, general director of Skoda-YAM, asked rhetorically at the end of last year. It is assumed that if the consortium were defeated, Skoda could participate in the project independently as a subcontractor. Russia also proposes to build a nuclear fuel production plant in the Czech Republic, which would supply its products to both Czech and other European nuclear power plants.
Moscow's chances looked even stronger in light of the fact that in 2006 the Russian company TVEL won a tender to supply fuel to Temelin over the next ten years. And after Czech President Vaclav Klaus supported the Russian bid at a meeting in Moscow with Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev in October last year, Atomstroyexport’s participation in the contract seemed almost a done deal.
However, competitors were not asleep either. Westinghouse's interests were lobbied by influential officials of the Barack Obama administration. It was also said that in exchange for a positive decision on Temelin, the American Exxon Mobil could cede to Prague part of its stake in the Trans-Alpine Oil Pipeline (through this pipeline, oil from the Italian port of Trieste enters the interior of the continent).
The qualification stage of the tender ended in February of this year, but news about Temelin appeared only after the May parliamentary elections in the Czech Republic and the defeat of the Green Party, which opposed the completion of the nuclear power plant. Already on May 31, the customer of the work, the Czech energy giant ČEZ, presented to the public a conclusion on the impact of the project on the environment, the main document required to obtain permits for the completion of the station.
The coming to power in the country of a center-right government led by the Civil Democratic Party (CDP) also made changes to the balance of power among potential participants in the project. Key members of Petr Necas's cabinet oppose allowing the Russians to complete the Temelin project, citing energy security concerns. The fact is that Skoda-YAM has been owned by the Russian company OMZ since 2004, which is now owned by Gazprombank. “If the company that will be entrusted with fulfilling this strategic order belongs to the state, then it must be our ally,” the main ideologist of the State Democratic Party, now Minister of Defense Alexander Vondra, unequivocally stated earlier. A similar position is taken by the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the leader of the government party TOP-09, Karel Schwarzenberg, who prefers the “European option”: “The French bidder has the most experience, and from a political point of view it is more profitable if the supplier is from the EU.”
Experts avoid political declarations. “The tender must be held in accordance with the law, which presupposes that the choice of the general contractor cannot be determined by geopolitical considerations. All participants must be in equal conditions,” emphasized one of the leaders of the CEZ, Vaclav Glavinka, last fall.
“I’m not afraid of Russia and I don’t share the fear that we will be swallowed up by Gazprom or anyone else,” the chairman of the committee on international affairs, defense and security of the upper house of the Czech parliament, a former well-known dissident, told Vremya Novostey. Jiri Dienstbier. -- Capital today has acquired a global character. Russian companies operate successfully not only in the Czech Republic, but also in the USA. When considering applications from applicants, one should focus not on the location of the company, but on the most advantageous offers in terms of price and technology. Personally, I believe that the best nuclear power plants are French, whose safety and reliability have been tested for decades. It is important that all proposals are assessed objectively and there is no reason to talk about corruption, which is very widespread in the Czech Republic.”
Recently, an American delegation led by Deputy Minister of Trade Francisco Sanchez visited the Czech Republic to discuss the completion of the nuclear power plant. The deputy minister said that he flew to Prague on the direct orders of President Obama, who is paying increased attention to Temelin. In the fall, tenderers must submit their detailed proposals; the owner of the “contract of the century” will be determined in the spring of 2012.