Representatives of the main political parties running in the forthcoming Czech parliamentary elections agreed the country needs nuclear energy in its future energy mix, Tomáš Kovalovský, chairman of the Czech Nuclear Association, and Tomáš Měřínský, chairman of Sekurkon, write in an overview of the Nuclear Power - New Nuclear Builds conference, held on 23 September in Prague.

Support for new nuclear build at the Czech Republic's Dukovany power plant has been signed into law by President Miloš Zeman. It is designed to remove market failures that stand in the way of the Czech Republic's goal to rely on nuclear energy for secure supply of power and heat.

The Czech Republic's support framework for nuclear investment has been approved by the lower house of parliament. The Low Carbon Act should come into effect from 1 January 2022, the energy ministry said. "Currently, there are no market incentives for investment in new nuclear or other emission-free energy sources," noted Tomáš Ehler, the deputy minister of industry and trade, saying, "These market failures have been confirmed by the European Commission itself."

Westinghouse of the USA and Czech utility ČEZ yesterday signed a nine-year project agreement to upgrade the instrumentation and control systems at the Temelin nuclear power plant. As the original supplier, Westinghouse will partially renew and upgrade selected control and management systems. The value of the contract was not disclosed.

Nuclear is already set to become the largest source of energy in the Czech Republic, but accelerating new build and broadening its use to provide more heat would help hasten the phaseout of coal, according to the International Energy Agency. Phasing out coal is "a key challenge" for the Czech Republic, the IEA said in a policy review published today. Despite a 36% decrease since 2009, coal still accounts for half of total domestic energy production and it is not expected to be phased out completely until 2038, it said.

The Czech Republic's nuclear sector could deliver up to 75% of the work to construct new reactors at Dukovany and boost GDP by 0.9% during the peak of construction, a government report has concluded. Accordingly, it should be supported and enabled to win more export work, the report said.

The Dukovany nuclear power plant in the Czech Republic has opened its annual drive-in cinema in the shadow of the plant's cooling towers. Every Saturday through the month of August, moviegoers will enjoy local films with their entry fee going to charity.

Dukovany II Power Plant, part of ČEZ Group, wrote yesterday to three potential bidders for the construction of a new nuclear unit at the Dukovany nuclear power plant in the Czech Republic. The letter is the official start of a safety assessment of EDF, Westinghouse and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, the reactor vendors selected by the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade to participate in a pre-qualification round.

The Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade has selected EDF, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, Rosatom and Westinghouse to participate in a pre-qualification round for a tender to supply a new unit for the Dukovany nuclear power plant. The ministry has not included China General Nuclear. A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in the Czech Republic told Radiožurnál that the exclusion of CGN "seriously deviates from the principle of fair competition and the rules of international trade".

The Czech Republic's State Office for Nuclear Safety yesterday issued a site licence for two new reactor units at the existing Dukovany nuclear power plant site. ČEZ said obtaining a site licence means preparation for an announcement on tenders for suppliers to the Dukovany expansion project can start.

Czech scientists have received a US patent for their discovery that a polycrystalline-diamond coating can significantly protect fuel rods against corrosion during both normal reactor operation and accidents. Researchers from the Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics of the Czech Technical University and the Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic obtained an EU patent for the technology in April last year.

The European Union should embark on a "nuclear renaissance" programme if it is to achieve its climate objectives, a new study on the bloc's climate policy has concluded. Commissioned by ECR Group and Renew Europe, the report says it is practically impossible to generate sufficient energy with wind and solar energy as there is not enough available land to meet electricity demand.