In the runup to the recent elections in the Czech Republic, party programs were full of promises about building modular nuclear reactors. That technology basically does not exist, though. The Czech state is subsidizing the stagnating nuclear industry instead of developing clean, modern power production.
All of the main stakeholders in Czech politics are promising to arrange to build so-called modular nuclear reactors. The ANO movement’s economic strategy counts on completing the first such power source by 2034. The SPOLU coalition said it would make progress on develop such reactors, while the Starostové movement wants modular nuclear reactors to replace today’s coal-fired plants for the production of electricity and heat.
Politicians across the spectrum in the Czech Republic are promising that modular nuclear reactors will produce “clean”, “stable” energy first and foremost. However, that technology does not exist anywhere on the globe, so any eventual investment into such reactors just blocks the transformation of power production into an industry using clean, modern energy sources.
Technology on paper only
What are termed “small modular nuclear reactors” yield less output than conventional reactors and their components can be produced in series, which, according to the nuclear industry’s plans, will lower the cost of building such reactors or at least the International Atomic Energy Agency is anticipating such cost reductions. The entire concept just remains on paper so far. Only three reactors which might meet such parameters are in operation on the planet so far. They are the Akademik Lomonosov, a floating reactor in Russia, and the two Chinese reactors at the Shidaowan power plant. Both the Russian reactor and the two Chinese ones operate in environments where no independent monitoring mechanisms exist for nuclear power plants such as there are in Europe or North America.
As Professor Stephen Thomas of Greenwich University in Britain points out in his study of the current prospects for modular nuclear reactors in the Czech Republic, there does not yet exist a commercial commission to construct a modular reactor and none of the prototypes has undergone a comprehensive security evaluation by an experienced, independent regulator.
According to The World Nuclear Industry Status Report, the number of announced projects is rising. Usually their completion is projected during or after 2030. “The industry, politicians, investors, and last but least, the media are still presenting modular reactors as an irreplaceable, sure way to address the climate crisis and, recently, as a reliable way to ensure energy for the growing number of data centres and the demand for generative artificial intelligence,” the report says. However, these are “Potemkin villages” – the report alleges that costs even just for the preparatory work are running into the billions of dollars and that such projects are collapsing.
According to Thomas, the nuclear industry is signing memoranda and plans to build modular reactors just to get support from public budgets. “Agreements to collaborate are regularly signed, for instance, between governments, regulators, or suppliers and their clients, and possible orders are also spoken of,” he describes in the study. Such declarations, in his view, do not have any larger meaning. The reason is that they require minimal commitments from the involved parties. “They represent more of a signal to the public than any real progress on the commercial viability of modular reactors,” he summarizes.
The Czech state as a naïve sponsor of the nuclear industry
Such memoranda and statements in recent years have also been signed by the Czech Government and the ČEZ group. They have partnered with the British engineering firm Rolls-Royce, or rather, with its daughter company developing modular reactors. In 2020, ČEZ issued a statement with the British producer about their collaboration on developing such reactors. In 2024, the ČEZ group made a capital contribution to the daughter firm of Rolls-Royce involved in modular reactors and signed an agreement to build them in both the Czech Republic and Great Britain together.
According to Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, speaking in September 2024, the Czech Government wants to support the ČEZ group not just to build modular reactors, but also to produce them. Rolls-Royce, therefore, is promising to put part of its serial production of components for nuclear reactors in the Czech Republic.
This promise to not just build reactors, but also to serially produce them in the Czech Republic, cannot be read as anything other than an attempt by Rolls-Royce to support its own business interests and lower the risks tied to the development of modular reactors, which Thomas calls “speculative technology”.
Modular reactors springing up like mushrooms when it rains
The Czech Government, per its adopted National Climate Energy Plan, wants to build several modular reactors right away. The ČEZ group wants to build the first reactor at the site of the nuclear power plant in Temelín. It is meant to be completed by the mid 2030s.
However, ČEZ is planning to build “small and medium modular reactors” at the site of the former coal-fired power plant of Tušimice, too. According to data from the announcement of the intention to build new nuclear power sources, ČEZ is considering locating up to six modular nuclear reactors there. ČEZ declared its intent at the start of May and now the process of assessing the environmental impact is underway. In July, the ČEZ group concluded an agreement on collaboration with Rolls-Royce to build such reactors in Tušimice.
“The reactor offered by Rolls-Royce is very similar to the conventional reactors which are already in operation in Dukovany in terms of their technology and output,” Czech daily Deník Referendum quoted energy expert Oldřich Sklenář as saying. The output planned for the British firm’s reactor is about 498 megawatts, while currently Dukovany’s four functioning blocks produce 524 megawatts.
According to Sklenář, therefore, it is difficult to speak of these reactors as “small”. He perceives the adjective “small” as part of the attempt to downplay the eventual risks related to building and operating this sort of power source. “The consequence is that the somewhat unjustified idea is arising here that such reactors can just be driven in by truck, placed on the ground, and they will produce an enormous amount of energy,” Sklenář said, adding that such a notion simply does not correspond to reality. “In reality, any eventual modular reactors will function like the power plant in Dukovany does,” Sklenář summarizes.
The ČEZ group’s and the Czech Government’s plans, therefore, primarily aid the Rolls-Royce company with acquiring enough financing for the further development of their prototypes. However, according to Thomas, it will still take years to reach the point where Rolls-Royce will be able to conclude a binding contract to supply this technology.
Let’s build modern power supplies without nuclear
Czech politicians trust this “Potemkin village” of modular reactors, though. Unfortunately, the train has already left the station when it comes to Czech power production. By 2033, coal-fired production will end in the Czech Republic, with the operators of coal-fired power sources and studies by expert organisations anticipating a fundamental decline in coal-fired power production before this decade ends. Covering 40% of annual electricity production in the Czech Republic and half of the annual production of heat is not something any new nuclear power source will be ready to do in time. Plans are necessary to build resources which will aid us here and now, not an entire decade from now.
According to the study by the Facts on the Climate organisation, what is important to stopping coal is the fast development of wind energy first and foremost, together with strengthening systems of transmission and opportunities to store energy. Their predictions also indicate it will be necessary to increase the capacity of controllable gas-fired power plants. The modelling also shows that the extensive, fast inclusion of renewable resources in the replacement of coal will lower the price of electricity in the Czech Republic and yield savings on the order of 20 or 30 billion Czech crowns for consumers each year. The building of more than one big nuclear source, according to the Facts on Climate models, would increase the price of energy in the Czech Republic.
Sklenář says Czech power production can get by without modular reactors. According to him, covering any eventual shortage caused by coal-fired power sources going offline can be done through renewable resources and partially even by fossil fuels. However, in terms of using gas, small sources can be prioritised combining the production of electricity and heat which will be prepared to produce biofuel from local sources of waste instead of importing fossil fuel.
Coal, however, can be replaced with renewable resources to a significant degree. Such power production can be built quite quickly when we eliminate difficult construction procedures. Sklenář primarily sees the current tempo of building installations of solar-powered production as hopeful. “Annually we are managing to install about one gigawatt of new solar resources. If we keep up that tempo for several years in a row, despite the costs of strengthening the network and storing such energy, nuclear will not be able to compete with such growth,” Sklenář says.
The boom in solar power production in and of itself will not yield enough resources, though. For that reason, Sklenář suggests that instead of investing in practically non-existent technologies, we should stretch our financing to cover the combination and exploitation of renewable solutions which have already been tested, are relatively cheap, and have no fundamentally negative impact on the climate and the environment.
“For instance, it is possible to take advantage of the fact that at the former coal-fired power plant sites there are already sufficient connections to the system of transmission by building high-capacity storage there for energy powered by an adjacent wind or solar power plant and supplemented by, for example, a data centre,” Sklenář says, describing the possible form of the “energy centres” which could replace coal-fired power plants instead of replacing them with modular reactors. According to him, such centres would offer clean, stable power, and since batteries and data centres would necessary yield heat as a byproduct, they could also be connected to any eventual heat supply systems.
Sklenář also pointed out to the editors of Deník Referendum that in 2020 the ČEPS company, which is responsible for running Czech power supply systems, elaborated a scenario for the development of future power production without new nuclear resources and presented it to the coal commission. However, the then-cabinet of Andrej Babiš refused to review it.
Building power production without coal and without nuclear, is possible in the Czech Republic. According to the modelling, there is a high probability that it would also lead to lower power prices. However, instead of doing that, the Czech state will continue to sponsor the stagnating nuclear industry of the past.
