French Areva SA Friday appealed to stay in the bidding
process for a roughly $10 billion project to expand a nuclear power plant in
the southern Czech town of Temelin, operated by Czech power company CEZ AS.
"Areva has provided detailed objections to each of the reasons for
exclusion raised by CEZ and believes that its comprehensive and detailed offer,
handed to CEZ in July, is in full compliance with the statutory requirements as
well as the tender criteria," the French company said in a statement.
Oct. 5, CEZ dropped Areva from the tender saying that the French company failed
to meet tender requirements. Neither CEZ nor Areva have elaborated in detail on
sticking points which caused the French company's exclusion from the tender.
Two other bidders for the Czech deal--Westinghouse Electric Co., the U.S.-based
unit of Japan's Toshiba Corp. (6502.), and Russia's state-owned Rosatom--remain in the tender
to double the number of reactors at the Temelin power plant to four in the
2020s. The Czech utility is expected to make its selection by the end of next
year.