The Czech government has taken a small stake in the Rolls Royce SMR consortium. This consortium hopes to build and market fleets of nuclear reactors in order to meet the increasing demand for energy in 2030s.
The Czech Republic announced a partnership last month with Rolls-Royce SMR for the construction of small modular reactors in eastern Europe. Rolls won a competition led by Cez (the country’s state-backed power group) in which six other companies were also considered.
The Czech government has announced that it will purchase an equity stake via Cez in the Rolls Consortium for an undisclosed amount, a move which demonstrates its commitment to SMR technology.
Rolls-Royce SMR’s majority owner is the FTSE 100 Engine maker. It owns a stake in Rolls-Royce SMR of approximately 70%. Qatar Investment Authority, US Energy firm Constellation, and BNF Capital are also shareholders.
Cez’s stake in the SMR consortium is unknown, but it is likely to be a result of Rolls selling its shares. Tufan Erginbilgic said last year that he intended to reduce Rolls-Royce’s stake in SMR to around 50%.
The SMRs are smaller versions of the traditional pressurised-water reactors. They are built in factory modules and assembled on site. The aim is to lower the cost of large new nuclear power stations.
SMRs are not yet in use anywhere, but a number of companies are developing versions of this technology. The world’s governments are eager to find a way to produce energy that emits zero emissions to replace fossil fuels.
Rolls-Royce has been a contender for a fleet SMRs for more than a year. The company was shortlisted as one of six in a contest run by Great British Nuclear, a government-run quango. Last week the list was reduced to four. Sources in the industry doubted that the SMR competition would end this year as GBN had hoped.
Cez is the state-owned energy company of Czech Republic.
Rolls has maintained that before it can sell its technology to other countries, it must first get an order for SMRs from the British Government. Some in the company believe that the UK and Czech Republic can now have a parallel development program, since the Czech Republic is moving fairly quickly on its SMR program.
Cez’s spokesperson said that it would benefit from participating in the early stages of Rolls-Royce SMR setting up its supply chain.
Petr Fiala said that when announcing the partnership with Rolls earlier this month, his country was not “interested [in] buying small modular reactors but rather… [participating] in their production and development on a worldwide scale”.
Fiala announced that the first Czech SMR will be built in Temelin, in the southern part of the country.
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