The U.S.-based Westinghouse Electric Company is challenging the preferred bidder status of a South Korean company for a project to build two new nuclear reactors in the Czech Republic.

In a press release issued Monday, Westinghouse said it had filed an appeal with the Czech Anti-Monopoly Office to protest the choice of Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power (KHNP) by the Czech power utility company CEZ.
 
The U.S. company said KHNP’s APR1000 and APR1400 plant designs use Westinghouse’s Generation II System 80 nuclear technology under a licensing agreement. KHNP does not own the technology and has no right to sublicense it to a third party without Westinghouse’s consent, the company said.
 
Therefore, Westinghouse argued, the KHNP does not meet the conditions specified in the tender, which required vendors to certify that they had the right to transfer and sublicense their technology to CEZ and local suppliers.

Only Westinghouse has that right, the statement continued.