Germans 'in denial' over Czech relationship

In earlier posts, I identify reasons to question the legality of the choice of CEEI to plan and erect a spent nuclear fuel facility at NPP Temelín. Most recently, I have puzzled over the claim that CEEI enjoyed an exclusive relationship with GNS, the German manufacturer of spent nuclear fuel casks, and its subsidiary WTI, which designs the facilities in which these casks are placed. Given CEEI’s absurd profile (see The Klaus Era), I assumed that such a partnership was rather implausible.

It seems I was wrong. I see now that I may have misread the words of Michael Köbl, the GNS spokesman, who stated that “During the planning phase, there were negotiations between CEEI and WTI to use our license. CEEI however won the bid with a Czech design and as a result, there was no need for our license and so the cooperation was terminated. We do not know any details because we were not part of the procedure. We cannot say who owns CEEI.”

The German original reads: "In der Planungsphase des Zwischenlagerprojektes Temelin wurden mit der Firma CEEI Gespräche über eine Lizenzvergabe für das von der GNS-Tochter WTI entwickelte und in Deutschland mehrfach realisierte Lagerkonzept geführt. Nach unserer Kenntnis wurde der Auftrag für die Lagerplanung und Errichtung von ČEZ nach einer europaweiten Ausschreibung an die Firma CEEI jedoch auf Basis einer speziellen, in Tschechien entwickelten und bereits genehmigten Planung vergeben. Aufgrund dieser Entscheidung von ČEZ ist eine Lizenz der WTI für das Lager in Temelin nicht erforderlich gewesen. Die Zusammenarbeit mit CEEI wurde daraufhin beendet. Weitere Details hierzu sind uns nicht bekannt, da wir an dem Verfahren nicht beteiligt waren. Über die Eigentumsverhältnisse bei der Firma CEEI können wir ebenfalls keine Angaben machen."

You could interpret this to mean, as I did, perhaps incorrectly, that GNS rejects the claim that it had ever licensed its nuclear fuel storage know-how to CEEI. Having now had a chance to see a copy of what looks like a license agreement between WTI Wissenschaftlich-Technische Ingenieurberatung GmbH and CEE-IT Central Europe Engineering s.r.o. (CEEI was called CEE IT then), it seems that the German firm did indeed contract to sell its know-how and now appears to be trying to downplay any relationship that might have once existed between the two firms, although not to the extent of obliging CEEI to remove the statement "We are partners of the companies WTI a GNS Group for the territory of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Russia and Eastern Europe." from the home page of their website. GNS insists that all cooperation with CEEI has ended -"Die Zusammenarbeit mit CEEI wurde daraufhin beendet", but this does not appear to be the understanding of CEEI.

Assuming the document is genuine, WTI licensed its know-how to CEEI in May 2007 based upon certain conditions. But because ČEZ switched to a Czech design, CEEI never paid the license fee and the know-how was never transferred. This version of events is not contradicted by GNS’s statement above. And although one might be forgiven for thinking the statement misleading, if you have been reading earlier blogs, you will completely understand why GNS is ‘in denial’ over CEEI.

The know-how for sale was the project plan for the German spent nuclear fuel storage facility at NPP Isar in Bavaria. In the German original of the license agreement, the know-how is defined thus (CEE is the abbreviation used for CEE IT): "Das Know-how zur Errichtung eines Brennelementlagers, das WTI nach Maßgabe dieses Vertrages an CEE überträgt, entspricht der Realisierungsform des Brennelementlagers am Standort des Kernkraftwerks ISAR."

We can only speculate as to why GNS/WTI was willing to sell its know-how to CEEI. Maybe ČEZ encouraged GNS to do so. Maybe GNS was keen not to prejudice its chances to supply NPP Temelín with its Castor fuel casks. We shall never know.

But we may reasonably hope that German media and pressure groups will challenge GNS on its readiness to sell its know-how to such a firm. GNS states that it cannot say who owned CEEI ("Über die Eigentumsverhältnisse bei der Firma CEEI können wir ebenfalls keine Angaben machen.") by which I assume it means it does not know who owns CEEI, not that it is unwilling to reveal the owners. In either case, it hardly inspires confidence in the nuclear power industry when Europe’s leading manufacturer of spent fuel casks and designer of the buildings in which they are housed make contractual commitments to sell the complete documentation to a brand new Bavarian spent nuclear fuel storage facility to a company represented by a lawyer in Liechtenstein and led by the likes of Martin Peter, a PR consultant, and Jiří Kovář, an ODS politician (click this link to watch Jana Klímová’s horrifying exposé on ČT1 to see just exactly what I mean).

Perhaps GNS never expected to have to transfer the documentation to CEEI. And perhaps CEEI never expected to have to pay the license fee. Could it be that the agreement was just a cover, a way to lend plausibility to ČEZ’s choice, and that the Germans played their part in return for a promise of ČEZ contracts in the future? It is worth reminding ourselves that GNS has licensed through its subsidiary GNB Essen the manufacture of its Castor casks to Škoda JS, a former Appian Group company sold to the Russian industrial group OMZ - Power Machinery in 2004. GNS actually licensed its Castor know-how to Škoda JS in 2001 (see Page 8 of the company's 2010 Annual Report here). Presumably when the Appian Group (Martin Roman et al) acquired Škoda Plzeň in 2003 from the state, the license agreement had to be redrawn up with the new owners, and again in 2004, when Škoda JS was sold by Roman to the Russians. So we can assume that GNS knew all about the ownership structure of Appian.

Ach jo! Business, even nuclear business, is still business; and ČEZ is still ČEZ.