Government postpones tender on Temelin’s completion

The Czech government has decided to postpone a tender on the completion of the Temelin nuclear power plant by a year. After Tuesday’s meeting of the Security Council Prime Minister Petr Nečas said the cabinet would issue the documents for bidders in 2011, receive bids in 2012 and pick the winner in 2013. He said the tender may also result in no one being picked. The Temelin nuclear plant in south Bohemia now runs two 1,000-megawatt units. Three potential bidders have expressed interest in building another two units at the plant: the US company Westinghouse, a grouping of Russia's Atomstroiexport and Gidropress with the Czech Skoda JS, and France's Areva.