Turning tricks with Comrade Gerd

As Martin Veselovský of Czech Radio emphasized last night, the CR seems to be going out of its way to increase its dependence on Russia for energy. When TVEL of Russia won the contract to replace Westinghouse as the nuclear-fuel supplier at Temelín, ČEZ insisted that price was the deciding factor. However, Director Dana Drábová of the atomic-energy agency told Veselovský that strategic issues also played a role. Under what scenario, one might ask, is reducing the CR's nuclear-fuel suppliers to a single state-owned Russian company a "strategic" move. ČEZ now seems to be trying to use a minor fuel- consistency issue to kick Westinghouse out of Temelín a year early. This is another tidbit to support the theory that the "strategy" of ČEZ CEO Martin Roman, who already sold Škoda Plzeň to Gazprom, is to do the same with ČEZ. Germany has its Schröder, the CR has its Roman. [Czech Republic nuclear energy safety agency Pilsen Gerhard Schroeder]