Czechs take stake in Rolls vehicle in boost for small nuclear reactors

The Czech government is taking a minority stake in the Rolls-Royce SMR consortium, which hopes to build and sell fleets of small nuclear reactors to meet increasing demand for electricity in the 2030s.
Last month, the Czech Republic announced a strategic partnership with Rolls-Royce SMR to build small modular reactors (SMRs) in the eastern European country. Rolls beat six other companies in a selection process led by Cez, the country’s state-backed energy group.
It has now emerged that the Czech government will take an equity stake in the Rolls consortium via Cez for an undisclosed sum, in a move that underlines its determination to advance SMR technology.
Rolls-Royce SMR is majority owned by the FTSE 100 engine maker, which has a stake of about 70 per cent. Other shareholders include the Qatar Investment Authority, US energy firm Constellation and BNF Capital, an investment vehicle set up by the billionaire Perrodo family of France.
It is not known how big a stake Cez will take in the SMR consortium, although it is expected to come via Rolls selling down its holding. Last year, Tufan Erginbilgic, the chief executive of Rolls-Royce, said his intention was to take the company’s shareholding in the SMR business down to about 50 per cent.
SMRs are scaled-down versions of traditional pressurised water reactors and are designed to be built in modules in factories and then assembled on site. This is supposed to reduce the massive costs of big new nuclear power plants.
No working SMRs have yet been built globally, although scores of firms are working on versions of the technology. Governments around the world are keen to find ways to produce zero-emission energy to replace fossil fuels.
Rolls-Royce, which has for decades made nuclear reactors for Royal Navy submarines, has been in the running for over a year to build a fleet of SMRs in the UK. It was one of six companies shortlisted in a competition run by Great British Nuclear (GBN), a government quango; last week, the list was whittled down to four. Industry sources expressed doubt that the winners of the SMR contest would be announced by the end of this year, as GBN had initially hoped.
Rolls has always maintained that it needs to bag an order from the British government for its SMRs before selling its tech to other countries. However, it is understood that some in the company think the UK and the Czech Republic could now follow a parallel development process, as the latter is moving relatively fast on its SMR programme.
A spokesman for Cez said it “can benefit from being in the picture from the early stages as Rolls-Royce SMR sets up its supply chain … Thanks to this strategic co-operation, Cez will be able to participate not only in the development and construction of the new small modular reactor, but also become suppliers for other SMR projects.”
Announcing the Rolls partnership earlier this month, Petr Fiala, prime minister of the Czech Republic, said his nation was not “interested in buying small modular reactors, but rather in … [participating] directly in their development and production, on a global scale”.
Fiala said the first Czech SMR would be built near Temelín in the south of the country.