Temelín delay highlights worldwide problems getting nuclear plants delivered on budget and on time says government appointee

Czech Prime Minister, Petr Nečas, on Tuesday confirmed that one of the biggest building contracts in the country and world, the building of two new nuclear reactors at the current Temelín site, and up to three more elsewhere, faces delays. He also said that the government not power company, ČEZ, will have the last say in negotiations with three multinational constructors. The Czech delays have highlighted a key question about whether those constructors can provide the guarantees and have the wherewithal to build the new nuclear plants that many say are essential to meet rising world demand and curb climate change. We talked earlier with Václav Batuška the government’s appointee to keep tabs on the Temelín deal and asked him what was the situation regarding the delays.

Temelín nuclear power plant

“ČEZ has already informed all three bidders that there may be delay with the preparation of documents because, frankly, all three bidders have a few questions to answer.”

This is the problem that some of the companies cannot provide some of the guarantees that the company or state…

“I will not go into details. This is a big business issue. What is in question is billions of dollars. I will not make any comment on this.”

The prime minister said yesterday that at the end of this timetable there is a chance that maybe no bidder will be selected at all. How likely is that?

“I do not know what will be in the final offers which will come in 2012. Nobody knows that. So if the price is too high or simply unacceptable or if the conditions are not met then no bidder will be chosen. It would be crazy from our side to say we will build no matter what the costs because that is simply not true. There is a cost at which nuclear is economically viable. And then there is a price at which it simply makes no sense to build it.”

Václav Bartuška (left), Petr Nečas, photo: CTK

In the recent past the direction seemed to be that the contract should be decided as quickly as possible because there seemed to be a rush to build nuclear power plants. Is this not the case any more?

“I do not see any such rush anywhere. People in the nuclear business like to talk about a nuclear renaissance, what I see is a nuclear resuscitation not a renaissance. Hopefully there will be a renaissance 10 years from now. But at the moment what you see is very, very few nuclear power plants being built in the world with substantial delays and substantial difficulties. So I do not see any reason to rush anywhere.”

We are talking about the completion of Temelín, which is two reactors. The whole contract is two reactors plus options for another three, perhaps in the Czech Republic or Slovakia. How likely is it that there will be two, five or none?

“What really matters at the moment is the two reactors. Seeing the situation in the nuclear business all around the world, I want to talk about two reactors for Temelín 3 and 4, with the options of course. But honestly the contract for two reactors, that is a fairly big contract. There are only two new reactors being built in Europe at the moment in Finland and in France. So we are speaking about two new reactors which is a fairly big deal.”

If this is a problem for nuclear suppliers in getting their contract terms and paperwork in order, isn’t this a bit surprising?

“Well, if you look at Finland for example, there was a contract which was signed which was already hugely, hugely overstepped. Also the timeline has been postponed several times. That is not the only case. What you really have is an industry that has come back from the dead, quite honestly, quite literally, after Three Mile Island and Cernobyl. And an industry that hopefully will get better. I really hope so.”