Czech Lawmakers Pass Bill Banning Chinese, Russian Firms From Nuclear Plant Construction

The lower house of the Czech parliament on Wednesday approved a draft law proposed by the government on measures for the country's transition to low-carbon energy, which include a ban on participation of Russian and Chinese companies in the construction of a new power unit at the Dukovany nuclear power plant, Czech TV reported

PRAGUE (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th June, 2021) The lower house of the Czech parliament on Wednesday approved a draft law proposed by the government on measures for the country's transition to low-carbon energy, which include a ban on participation of Russian and Chinese companies in the construction of a new power unit at the Dukovany nuclear power plant, Czech tv reported.

Under the draft law, the authorities will be able to use the services of companies only based in nations that have joined the international agreement on state procurement. Russia and China are not party to the deal.

The bill is yet to be debated in the upper house.

The Czech government has been planning to expand one of the country's two nuclear power plants - Dukovany, which was built jointly by the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia. The winner of the bid for the construction of a new power unit should be determined no later than 2024. The construction of the block itself should begin in 2029 and be completed in 2036. The project costs about 6 billion Euros ($7.2 billion).

Five companies have been in the bidding process for the unit construction - Russia's state corporation Rosatom, US' Westinghouse, France's EdF, China General Nuclear Power, and South Korea's KHNP.

The possible participation of Russian and Chinese firms in the bidding has been repeatedly criticized by the country's political and security structures. In October of last year, over 30 Czech lawmakers addressed a joint letter to the government demanding Russian and Chinese firms be excluded from the project for security reasons. As a result, the Chinese company was excluded from the potential bidders by the Czech Cabinet in March this year.

In late April, the Czech government also decided to exclude the Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom from participating in the bidding over the diplomatic row concerning alleged involvement of Russian military intelligence officers in the 2014 explosions in Vrbetice which killed two Czech nationals, which Moscow denies. Rosatom, for its part, called its exclusion from the bidding politically motivated.