U.S. NUCLEAR FIRM SUES KHNP

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The U.S. nuclear power company Westinghouse has sued Electric Power Corporation and Hydro and Nuclear Power Company to prevent them from transferring nuclear power technology to other countries without permission from the U.S. government. The lawsuit might undermine Korea's chances of winning a deal with Poland to build nuclear power plants.

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Westinghouse has filed a lawsuit with a federal district court against the Korea Electric Power Corporation and the Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Company. The firm claims the KHNP violated its intellectual property rights in the KHNP's bid to build reactors in Poland using Westinghouse's pressurized water reactor design called Advance Power Reactor 1400. Westinghouse says technology included in the APR 1400 is banned by U.S. federal law from being re-transferred to other countries, and that Korean companies are not allowed to export it without the U.S. government's permission. The move comes as Korea and the U.S. are competing for winning a project for building six nuclear power reactors in Poland by 2043. Westinghouse also mentioned nuclear power projects in Saudi Arabia and the Czech Republic in a bid to prevent the KHNP from winning the bids exclusively. The KHNP says it paid Westinghouse for using its technology when exporting four nuclear reactors to the United Arab Emirates back in 2009. The company says it later localized the technology when building the Shin Kori and Hanul power plants in Korea, and developed the Korean version of the APR 1400. President Yoon and his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden reached an agreement on a nuclear power alliance during their summit in May. The deal includes exports of nuclear power technology to other countries. Therefore, the Korean government will have to find a way to respond to Westinghouse's unforeseen lawsuit.