The Czech state-controlled electricity company CEZ has signed a 10-year contract with the Russian TVEL Corp for nuclear fuel for the Temelin nuclear plant, spokesman Milan Nebesar told AFP Wednesday.
TVEL's offer defeated that of current US supplier Westinghouse, Nebesar said, while declining to give precise financial details of the 2010-2020 supply contract. "It runs into a few billion koruna" (hundreds of millions of dollars, euros), he said.
TVEL is to supply around 400 metric tonnes of fuel for Temelin's two 1,000 megawatt units, located in the southern Czech Republic near the Austrian border.
The Russian company already supplies fuel to CEZ nuclear reactors at Dukovany, near Brno.
Westinghouse, which helped to adapt the original Soviet design for Temelin by adding western safety features, is part of the British Nuclear Fuel (BNFL) Group.
