Czechia has signed a nuclear memorandum with the United Kingdom aimed at cooperation in nuclear energy, including the development of small modular reactors (SMRs).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have signed a memorandum confirming the mutual will of both countries to strengthen our partnership in nuclear energy, where we see a potential for future years,\u201d Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) was\u00a0quoted<\/a>\u00a0as saying by the\u00a0Czech Radio\u00a0(CRo).<\/p>\n Fiala made the comments following his talks with UK Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer in London, and he added that \u201cthe cooperation with Great Britain will help us achieve energy security and affordable prices of energy for future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n The memorandum follows a\u00a0previously concluded close cooperation<\/a>\u00a0between the Czech majority state-owned energy utility \u010cEZ and the UK\u2019s Rolls-Royce as its partner to develop SMRs.<\/p>\n Last October, \u010cEZ\u00a0signed a strategic agreement<\/a>\u00a0worth several billion Czech koruna (CZK1bn equates to \u20ac39.5mn) with Rolls-Royce, as part of which \u010cEZ will purchase a 20% minority stake in the small nuclear business Rolls-Royce SMR.\u00a0<\/p>\n The first modular reactor should be built at\u00a0the site of the Temel\u00edn nuclear power plant, the younger of the two NPPs in the country, and should be completed in the mid-2030s. Others should be built\u00a0at the coal power stations reaching the end of their lives in Northern Bohemia, such as Tu\u0161imice in the \u00dasteck\u00fd region.\u00a0The SMRs should have a capacity of between 200 MW and 400 MW.<\/p>\n Like much of Emerging Europe,\u00a0<\/a>the government is planning\u00a0a huge nuclear power programme<\/a>\u00a0to take the place of \u010cEZ\u2019s coal-burning power stations, to prepare for higher electricity demand due to the development of e-mobility and to ensure the country remains self-sufficient in power.<\/p>\n \u010cEZ plans to build up to ten modular reactors with a combined output of 3 GW by 2050. Existing NPPs Dukovany and Temelin have an output of 2 GW each. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe are creating conditions for small modular reactors to be built in the Czech Republic,\u201d Fiala also told\u00a0CRo, adding: \u201cI think it would be a very suitable complement to the building of the two nuclear blocks in Dukovany.\u201d<\/p>\n Last month,\u00a0Czech courts ruled against<\/a>\u00a0the French \u00c9lectricit\u00e9 de France (EDF), which filed a lawsuit against the selection of South Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP), and paved the way for the Czechs to sign the contract with KHNP for the \u00a0CZK407bn (16.4bn) project to construct two new blocks at the\u00a0Dukovany\u00a0nuclear power plant (NPP).<\/p>\n Czech media reported that the selection of KHNP is still subject to potential review by the EU over the foreign subsidy rules. In May, European Vice President for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy St\u00e9phane S\u00e9journ\u00e9 also asked\u00a0that the Czech side\u00a0wait to sign the\u00a0Dukovany\u00a0contract with KHNP<\/a>, though Fiala\u2019s cabinet went ahead with the signing in June.<\/p>\n The government also sees the nuclear expansion as a way of maintaining Czech expertise in nuclear technology, where it has the strongest tradition among the EU’s Eastern European member states. While part of the Soviet bloc, the then-Czechoslovakia began the development of four\u00a0NPPs, two of which are now in Czechia and two in Slovakia.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cRolls-Royce\u00a0is just creating its supply chain. The Czech Republic and Czech companies can be part of the birth of the supply chain and join it on the maximum possible scale,\u201d Prime Minister Petr Fiala told Czech media last September when commenting on the cooperation between \u010cEZ and Rolls-Royce. \u00a0<\/p>\n Environmentalists argue CEZ should focus more on renewable energy<\/a>\u00a0and that the government remains\u00a0too beholden to the country’s powerful fossil fuel and nuclear\u00a0energy lobbies.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Czechia has signed a nuclear memorandum with the United Kingdom aimed at cooperation in nuclear energy, including the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[31993,748,19832,35,393,4884,8081,1144,1767,712,101540,16,15,23886,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-266436","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-bne","11":"tag-britain","12":"tag-czechia","13":"tag-energy","14":"tag-england","15":"tag-great-britain","16":"tag-investments","17":"tag-northern-ireland","18":"tag-nuclear","19":"tag-scotland","20":"tag-smrs","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-united-kingdom","23":"tag-unitedkingdom","24":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114862597382753381","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}