2023-09-18 22:36:08
Delivery time2023-09-19 07:36
U.S. court dismisses Westinghouse over export control issue, saying it has no authority to sue
Intellectual property rights, a key issue, were not addressed, but the pressure factor disappeared and negotiations were favorable.
Barakah Nuclear Power Plant Unit 2 exported by Korea to UAE
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(Washington = Yonhap News) Correspondent Kim Dong-hyun = A U.S. court dismissed a lawsuit filed by U.S. nuclear power company Westinghouse to block its competitor Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) from exporting its own nuclear power plants.
The court ruled that Westinghouse was not entitled to sue without touching the intellectual property rights issue, which was the issue of the lawsuit. This is expected to give strength to Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, which is currently negotiating with Westinghouse on this issue.
On the 18th (local time), the Washington DC Federal District Court accepted Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power’s claim and ruled to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Westinghouse.
The court ruled that Westinghouse did not have jurisdiction to bring suit to enforce Section 810 (Export Control Regulations).
Previously, in October last year, Westinghouse filed a lawsuit requesting that the Korean-type nuclear power plant that Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) was trying to export to Poland and the Czech Republic used Westinghouse technology, which is subject to export controls under the U.S. Atomic Energy Act, and to prevent export without permission from the U.S. government. did.
Westinghouse cited Chapter 10, Section 810 of the U.S. Federal Regulations, which imposes the obligation to obtain permission from the Department of Energy or report when transferring certain nuclear power plant technology to foreign countries by designating it as subject to export control.
Accordingly, KEPCO argued that the Nuclear Energy Act that Westinghouse took issue with exclusively delegated the authority to enforce the law to the U.S. Attorney General and did not grant private individuals, such as Westinghouse, a private company, the authority to claim rights through litigation. .
On this day, the court sided with KHNP’s argument.
Although the court dismissed the lawsuit citing issues with Westinghouse’s qualifications, the key issue in the lawsuit was, in fact, whether the Korean nuclear power plant was a Westinghouse technology or a technology developed independently by Korea.
Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power received help from Westinghouse in the early stages of nuclear power plant development, but the nuclear power plant it is currently exporting is a model developed independently and is therefore not subject to U.S. export controls.
Construction site at the Bogle Nuclear Power Plant in the U.S.
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The court did not address this issue in this ruling, but the dismissal of the lawsuit eased the burden on Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power.
From the perspective of foreign governments considering which company to entrust with nuclear power plant construction, they had no choice but to consider the risk of problems arising from a court ruling if they chose Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) over Westinghouse, but with this ruling, they were able to avoid such concerns.
In particular, if the court accepted Westinghouse’s argument, KHNP would have had to obtain ‘permission’ from Westinghouse and the U.S. government every time it exported nuclear power plants in the future.
There was a general observation that Westinghouse filed this lawsuit to put pressure on Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, which was in conflict over intellectual property rights issues, and to increase its negotiating power.
Since Westinghouse filed the lawsuit, KHNP has been conducting negotiations to resolve this issue amicably, and it is expected that it will be able to negotiate at a more advantageous position as the pressure factor of the lawsuit disappears.
The nuclear power industry has been hoping that Westinghouse and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power will come up with an appropriate compromise in a situation where the governments of South Korea and the United States have agreed to strengthen nuclear cooperation, including entering the nuclear power plant market in third countries.
However, it cannot be said that the problem has been completely resolved simply by dismissing the lawsuit.
Considering that Westinghouse has been dogged by intellectual property rights issues since Korea exported nuclear power plants to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), there is a possibility that it will appeal this ruling and continue to raise the issue through other channels.
Some also point out that the possibility that the U.S. government, instead of Westinghouse, may take issue with export controls cannot be completely ruled out.
At the end of last year, KHNP attempted to bypass Westinghouse and directly report the export of nuclear power plants to the Czech Republic to the U.S. Department of Energy, but the Department of Energy refused, leading to an assessment that the U.S. government put the brakes on KHNP’s independent exports.
Report via KakaoTalk okjebo
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2023/09/19 07:36 Sent
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