Dukovany 5 and 6: Steering Committee Confirms Schedule as Czech-Korean Nuclear Project Moves Toward Permitting

The Dukovany expansion is no longer a tender story. Two APR1000 units at roughly 1,055 MWe each are under a signed CZK 407 billion engineering, procurement and construction contract with Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP), and the bilateral steering committee that oversees the programme is now reporting on schedule rather than on selection. That shift matters commercially: the questions worth asking about Dukovany in late 2026 are about permitting, state aid and the structure of a supply chain that a Korean prime contractor will dominate.

Where the project actually stands

The 20 October 2026 videoconference between Korea's Minister of Trade, Industry and Resources Jung-Kwan Kim and Czech Minister of Industry and Trade Karel Havlíček was the committee's third meeting. Both sides confirmed the project is progressing on schedule and reviewed the timeline for key milestones, including the submission of Czech permit and licence applications. A fourth meeting is to be held in Korea before the end of 2026, accompanied by B2B events.

Read carefully, that agenda is a statement about where risk now sits. Design, commercial terms and the prime contract are settled. What remains is regulatory: siting, construction and operating licences under Czech law, plus the as-yet unfinished European Commission decision on how Dukovany 6 will be financed.

The table below summarises the project as it is currently documented.

The commercial architecture: a state-owned project with a Korean prime

The ownership structure is unusual for a European nuclear project and shapes procurement behaviour. In May 2025 the Czech state completed the purchase of an 80% stake in EDU II from ČEZ for a reported USD 163 million, leaving ČEZ with 20%. Financing therefore runs through the state and, critically, through EU state aid approval rather than through a utility balance sheet.

The European Commission's April 2024 decision on Dukovany 5 (case SA.58207) approved support but cut the proposed contract-for-difference term from 60 to 40 years and capped the CfD-covered volume at 30% of output, rather than the 100% originally sought. That materially changes the revenue risk profile of the first unit. The Czech government asked the Commission in October 2025 to approve financing for Dukovany 6 on the basis that both units will now be built simultaneously; the Commission opened an investigation in December 2025, with a decision expected in early 2027.

That timeline is the single most important gate in the project. Until it clears, the second unit's financing is unresolved — and the political sensitivity of state aid for nuclear across the EU means the outcome is genuinely uncertain.

An on-schedule programme that has already absorbed shocks

The project's recent history is worth understanding because it explains the current emphasis on schedule discipline. Final bids were submitted on 31 October 2023 by Westinghouse (AP1000), EDF (EPR-1200) and KHNP (APR1000), after Russian and Chinese participation had been excluded in 2021. In early 2024 the tender was restructured from one binding unit plus options to binding offers for up to four. KHNP was selected in July 2024 at a headline of roughly CZK 200 billion per unit.

Signing in mid-2025 was briefly interrupted by EDF's legal challenge and related concerns; the Supreme Administrative Court rejected the challenge and the EPC contract was signed in June 2025. Site survey work began in August 2025. The steering committee's current "on schedule" messaging should be read against that backdrop — the programme has already demonstrated it can be delayed by litigation, and the Czech and Korean governments now have a shared interest in demonstrating control.

What this means for steel and equipment suppliers

This is where the Dukovany project departs from the pattern many European suppliers expect.

KHNP, not a European utility or a Western EPC consortium, is the prime contractor. The reactor pressure vessel, steam generators, primary piping and much of the nuclear island equipment will be sourced through the Korean supply chain, as the turbine awards to Doosan Enerbility and Doosan Škoda Power already signal. Doosan Škoda Power, based in Plzeň, is the visible Czech content in the equipment package; beyond it, the domestic share will depend on how KHNP structures its sub-packages and on Czech/local-content expectations attached to state support.

For steel specifically: the bulk structural and reinforcing steel for two APR1000 units is a large tonnage, but no public evidence yet identifies awarded packages, specifications or quantities. The EPC contract is signed, yet procurement of construction steel will be let progressively as detailed design and permitting advance. Suppliers should treat this as a future opportunity contingent on first concrete and the Dukovany 6 finance decision, not as an open tender. Rebar, structural sections and plate for the conventional island and balance of plant are the most plausible entry points for European mills; nuclear-grade forgings and primary circuit components are effectively a Korean domain. None of this is evidenced in the public record as yet — it is inference from the contract structure.

A second, less obvious factor: the proposed EU Industrial Accelerator Act, if enacted as drafted, would tighten local-content expectations for non-EU suppliers in strategic sectors. Its interaction with a Korean-prime nuclear project backed by Czech state aid is unresolved and worth monitoring, particularly for the equipment packages still to be placed.

Temelín and the option value

The original tender structure contemplated up to four units, and the Czech government has been explicit about wanting new capacity at Temelín as well. No decision on Temelín 3 and 4 has been documented in the sources reviewed here. Any expansion would follow the same commercial architecture — state-owned project company, KHNP prime — and would extend rather than transform the supply chain picture above.

What to watch next

Three events define the remainder of the pre-construction phase:

1. Submission of Czech permit and licence applications, the milestone the steering committee reviewed in October. Progress here is the best indicator of whether first concrete stays on the current schedule.
2. The European Commission's state aid decision on Dukovany 6, expected early 2027. A negative or conditional outcome would force a re-sequencing of the two units.
3. The fourth steering committee meeting in Korea before end-2026, with accompanying B2B events — a useful signal of which Czech firms are being brought into KHNP's supply chain and on what terms.

For suppliers, the practical message is that Dukovany is a contracted project in a permitting phase, not a market still open for prime-level competition. The commercial openings that remain are downstream, largely in construction materials and balance-of-plant equipment, and they will be released by KHNP's procurement organisation rather than by ČEZ or the Czech state.