Russia will bid in Czech NPP tender
PRAGUE. Dec 8 (Interfax) - Russia will take part in a tender to build a nuclear power plant (NPP) in the Czech Republic, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said after talks with his Czech counterpart Vaclav Klaus in Prague.
"It is an interesting project, we would like to, and, naturally, will take part in the tender," Medvedev told a press conference in Prague.
The Russian bid involves more active participation of Czech partners in the project, including subcontracted work, he said.
"We hope that the decision-making process in the competition procedure will be open and free and not bound by some outside pressure, wherever it is coming from," Medvedev said.
It was reported earlier that Russia's Atomenergoexport in consortium with Skoda JS and OKB Gidropress are taking part in a tender announced by Czech state energy producer CEZ for the construction of the second phase (power units N3 and N4) at the Temelin NPP (the largest Czech electricity producer, which has two power units with a total capacity of 2,000 megawatts).
The Russian-Czech consortium has offered a construction project which meets the highest modern safety standards and takes into account the events at the Fukushima-1 NPP in Japan.
The tender for the construction of two Temelin NPP power units was announced by CEZ on August 3, 2009. There are three main bidders: the Russian-Czech consortium, France's Areva NP and U.S.-Japanese firm Westinghouse (the majority stakeholder in Toshiba).
Earlier Rosatom chief Sergei Kiriyenko said that "Czech partners are expecting to receive packages of documents from all bidders by the summer of 2012." CEZ intends to sign a contract with the winner of the tender by December 2013, he said.
