▲ In this file photo, President Yoon Suk Yeol (L) and Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala attend a signing ceremony for agreements on nuclear energy industry cooperation at Doosan Skoda Power, a nuclear energy contractor in Plzen, an industrial city about 90 kilometers west of Prague, on Sept. 20, 2024. (Yonhap)

presidential office-Czech project

Presidential office says Czech nuclear power project to proceed as planned

SEOUL, Oct. 31 (Yonhap) -- The presidential office said Thursday that a South Korean nuclear power plant project in the Czech Republic will proceed as planned despite a temporary hold placed by the Czech antitrust body.

On Wednesday, news reports said the Czech Office for the Protection of Competition had imposed the hold in response to appeals filed by U.S. nuclear energy firm Westinghouse Electric Co. and French energy company Electricite de France.

The news came as a South Korean consortium, led by Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, has been seeking to finalize a contract to build two nuclear reactors in the Czech Republic by March after being chosen as the preferred bidder in July.

"A temporary hold is a temporary phenomenon that takes place according to procedures following the appeals of competitors that lost in the bidding process," Park Sang-ook, senior presidential secretary for science and technology, said in an interview with broadcaster YTN.

"There are no problems with the proceedings for the actual final contract," he added.

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