Czech Republic to appeal injunction halting nuclear power deal with S. Korea

Seoul, May 11 The Czech Republic's state-run energy company CEZ plans to appeal a court injunction this week preventing it from signing a major nuclear power plant project with South Korea, officials said on Sunday.

Last week, a Czech regional court issued an injunction temporarily suspending finalizing the estimated 26 trillion-won (US$18.6 billion) project, following a legal challenge filed by the French energy company EDF, which lost to the South Korean consortium led by Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. (KHNP) in the tender process.

The Czech authorities have told South Korean officials that CEZ and relevant government ministries will file an appeal with its highest administrative court within this week as swiftly as possible, reports Yonhap news agency.

CEZ CEO Daniel Benes told reporters last week that the company expected the court "to make a swift decision given the importance of the case."

KHNP had initially planned to finalize the agreement last week with Elektrarna Dukovany II (EDU II), a subsidiary of CEZ in charge of overseeing the project. But the signing was unexpectedly postponed just one day before the scheduled ceremony pending a final court ruling.

The South Korean delegation, led by Industry Minister Ahn Duk-geun, along with a group of reporters, had already arrived in Prague for the event. Benes expressed regret over the delay and offered an apology to the South Korean side.

The South Korean consortium was named the preferred bidder for the construction of two 1,063-megawatt nuclear reactors at the Dukovany nuclear power plant, located roughly 200 kilometers southeast of Prague.

If finalized, the project will represent South Korea's first overseas nuclear plant contract since 2009, when another KHNP-led consortium won a deal to build the Barakah nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates.

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