Escalating tensions in Ukraine could end up costing Russia its bid to expand the Temelín nuclear power plant in southern Bohemia. Czech Defense Minister Martin Stropnický (ANO) told the server idnes.cz that after the sudden flare-up of military action on the Crimea peninsula, he couldn’t imagine Russian companies being allowed to build such a strategic piece of power infrastructure in the Czech Republic. “Russia has disappeared from the group of predictable, democratic countries. What it is doing is unacceptable,” Stropnický said.
Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka condemned Russia’s military pose, but said Russian firms should not be excluded from the Temelín competition, as Russia is one of the Czech Republic’s most important business partners. Sobotka added that the Czech government cannot intervene in the tender, since the power producer ČEZ, which is overseeing the competition, is not fully-owned by the state.
A consortium led by Russia’s Atomstroyexport is bidding to expand the Temelin plant. A Japanese-US consortium led by Westinghouse is also under consideration. ČEZ hopes to finalize the tender in the second quarter of 2015.
