Czech industry calls for building new nuclear units in Temelín

Prague, March 5 (CTK) - Czech industrial companies need the construction of the third and fourth units at nuclear plant Temelin, Confederation of Industry president Jaroslav Hanak said at an energy congress organised by company Business Forum Tuesday.

The order is important not only for the direct involvement of the individual companies but also as an impulse for the development of technical education in the Czech Republic, he noted.

"Czech business has an unimaginable interest in Temelin," Hanak declared. "Many of our companies are in a number of consortia. We need to build Temelin, also for the progress in technical education, from apprentices to secondary schools and universities," he added.

US-Japanese company Westinghouse as well as Czech-Russian Konsortium MIR.1200, which are vying for the order, promise high participation of Czech companies.

They say that at least 70 percent of the order's value should go to Czech companies. French firm Areva made the same promise but CEZ eliminated it from the tender last year. Areva has turned to antitrust office UOHS and is trying to return to the tender.

Hanak thinks that it is also important that Czech participation in the project of the new units at Temelin does not end by participation in the construction.

Czech companies should also take part in the maintenance and service of the new units for the whole 60 year planned lifespan of them.

"This is the superbusiness involved, and I would be glad if our companies were in it," Hanak said.

The entire development around the new units at Temelin also needs to be transparent. The situation of the renewable energy sources where due to their fast boom, electricity prices for Czech buyers grew must not be repeated, he stressed.

Industrial companies expect this year's increase in electricity prices by some 5 percent to have a 40 to 60 percent impact on their profit, Hanak stated.

The price of baseload electricity has dropped by 4 percent year on year so the growth in the final price was caused by the higher regulated part of the price. This part, according to the Energy Regulatory Office (ERU), is growing due to the high support paid to renewable energy sources.

The high prices of energy harm the competitiveness of the Czech industry. Companies with energy-intensive production might therefore move their business abroad, Hanak said.

According to Confederation of Industry member Josef Zboril, who also sits on the European Economic and Social Committee, high prices of energy constitute a problem in the whole of Europe.

Interventions by EU institutions endanger the competitiveness of the manufacturing industry. Low prices of carbon credits, for instance, have caused a situation when the market with carbon credits does not fulfil its original purpose of investing in eco-friendlier technologies. Around EUR210bnn have been invested in the carbon credit system, whereas the same amount of money could have reduced emissions by dozens of percent, Zbori said.