Bidders for the construction of a new nuclear unit in Dukovany are finalizing their final bids and have until Monday, October 2, to submit them. The original deadline, which was set for mid-September, has been postponed by the energy company CEZ at their request. The company’s spokesman Ladislav Kříž announced today. The new unit should be completed by 2036.
Initial bids for the construction of the new unit were submitted last autumn by French company EDF, South Korean firm KHNP and North American Westinghouse. CEZ, which is in charge of the project, did not disclose the details of these bids. In the spring, the company held clarification meetings with the bidders to explain some of the terms of the tender and the first bids. Subsequently, CEZ invited them to submit final bids. All bidders had already declared that they would submit them.
Last year, along with the bids for the construction of the new Dukovany reactor, CEZ also received bids for options for another unit at Dukovany and for the construction of units 3 and 4 at Temelín. Both CEZ and the state have previously admitted that additional nuclear power plant units will probably be needed in the future to cover electricity consumption in the Czech Republic.
The project is expected to be the largest investment in the Czech Republic’s modern history; according to government and CEZ representatives, the new reactor is expected to cost about CZK 160 billion in 2020 prices. The exact price will be known only after the tender is completed.
The Czech Republic currently has six nuclear units in two power plants. Two units, each with a capacity of about 1,000 megawatts (MW), are at Temelin in South Bohemia. Four smaller units with a capacity of 510 MW are at Dukovany in the Trebic region. In addition to new conventional reactors, CEZ is also preparing to build small modular reactors. The first of them should be built in Temelín.
Source: CTK
