The Czech Republic's competition authority has rejected a French energy company's appeals against a South Korean bid to build two nuclear reactors in the Central European nation, a news report said Thursday.
The Office for the Protection of Competition's decision to turn down the appeals by Electricite de France clears the way for the South Korean consortium, led by Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power to finalize the estimated 26.2 trillion-won (US$18.2 billion) project, Reuters reported.
In July last year, the KHNP was picked as the preferred bidder for the nuclear power plant project in the Czech Republic's southern region of Dukovany.
But the project was embroiled in a legal dispute after U.S. nuclear energy firm Westinghouse Electric Co. and EDF filed appeals with Czech competition authorities, citing an alleged patent infringement and an unfair selection process.
In October, Czech authorities dismissed the appeals that had temporarily put the project on hold.
The project, if finalized, would be South Korea's first overseas nuclear power plant project since 2009, when KHNP won the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant contract in the United Arab Emirates. (Yonhap)
