In July, the Czech government announced that KHNP had been chosen over French electric utility firm Électricité de France (EDF) for the project to construct at least two nuclear reactors at the Dukovany power plant.
"KHNP's APR1000 and APR1400 plant designs utilize Westinghouse-licensed Generation II System 80 technology. KHNP neither owns the underlying technology nor has the right to sublicense it to a third party without Westinghouse's consent," Westinghouse said in a press release on Monday.
Westinghouse claimed it is the only entity legally entitled to seek U.S. government approval for exporting its technology.
Westinghouse had competed against KHNP and France's EDF with its AP1000 reactor to win the Czech project but was eliminated.
Westinghouse argued that adopting the APR1000 reactor instead of the AP1000 would result in the illegal use of U.S. technology and export thousands of clean energy jobs that could be created in the Czech Republic and the U.S. to Korea. This includes 15,000 jobs in Pennsylvania, where Westinghouse's headquarters is located.
Pennsylvania is viewed as a key battleground state that could determine the outcome of the upcoming presidential election, making both Democrats and Republicans highly attentive to job issues in the state.
"Westinghouse will continue to vigorously defend its intellectual property rights and compliance with U.S. export control laws via ongoing international arbitration and U.S. litigation, respectively," the company stated.
The company noted that a decision on the arbitration is not expected before the second half of 2025.
Westinghouse claimed that the nuclear power technology Korea intends to export to the Czech Republic and other countries is its own and therefore subject to U.S. export control regulations.
In October 2022, Westinghouse filed a lawsuit against KHNP in the U.S., and international arbitration proceedings are simultaneously underway at the Korean Commercial Arbitration Board.
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