Move follows settlement with Westinghouse over new reactors in Czech Republic
South Korea’s Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Company (KHNP) has closed its operations in Poland, effectively withdrawing from any plans to build a nuclear power station there, reports have said.
KHNP president Whang Joo-ho said during a National Assembly audit in Seoul on 19 August that the company “has effectively withdrawn” from the Polish project, according to press reports in South Korea.
“We were pursuing both government-led and state-owned enterprise-led projects, but Poland decided not to proceed with the state-owned enterprise project after a new government came into power there. That is why we withdrew our business there,” Whang said.
This marks the fourth time state-owned KHNP has withdrawn from a European market since a settlement with US-based Westinghouse in January 2025 over an intellectual property dispute, with the company also pulling out of nuclear bids in Sweden, Slovenia and the Netherlands.
Unconfirmed reports have said KHNP ceded leadership of nuclear projects in Europe to Westinghouse when it settled its dispute with the US company in order to secure a contract for a new nuclear power station in the Czech Republic.
As a result, it is barred from entering the nuclear markets of European Union member states – except the Czech Republic – the US, the UK, Japan and Ukraine.
It is restricted to pursuing projects in Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, South America and Turkey, reports said.
Westinghouse had accused the South Korean company of infringing on its intellectual property, claiming KHNP’s APR1000 and APR1400 plant designs use its licensed technology. The two sides reached a settlement in January.
That settlement removed a major hurdle for a KHNP-led consortium to sign a final contract in June, with an estimated value of $18.7bn (€16bn), to build two nuclear power units at Dukovany in the Czech Republic.
Seoul Planning To Review Westinghouse Agreement
Industry experts pointed out at the time that the settlement terms were disadvantageous to KHNP because Europe has far more ongoing nuclear projects than the Middle East. Whang defended the settlement during the National Assembly audit.
KHNP is reportedly obliged to pay Westinghouse intellectual property royalties of around 200bn won (€122m, $143m) per nuclear export project and guarantee Westinghouse contracts for its nuclear projects worth more than 1tn won (€613m, $714m).
Bloomberg reported (subscription required) that South Korea will review the agreement with Westinghouse after local media reported the deal’s potentially unfavourable terms.
South Korea’s chief presidential secretary instructed the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy to review the deal to verify that the negotiations and contract signing were carried out in accordance with national principles and procedures, Kang Yu-jung, presidential spokesperson, said during a briefing on Tuesday.
In 2022, Poland chose Westinghouse to supply its AP1000 pressurised water reactor technology for its first nuclear nuclear station.
Warsaw is also planning to launch a tender for technology and investors for a second nuclear station, a project for which KHNP might have been in the running.
