The Czech Cabinet has approved a shortlist of four potential sites for a deep geological repository for used nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive nuclear waste. The government also approved a new schedule calling for the site to be selected by 2030, five years later than originally planned. The repository is expected to be operational by 2065.

The tender for the construction of a new unit at the Dukovany nuclear power plant in the Czech Republic has been postponed from the end of this year to 2021, the Ministry of Industry and Trade announced yesterday, following a meeting by the Standing Committee for the Construction of New Nuclear Resources. Four possible options for the parameters of the tender are being considered, which will be addressed by the heads of parliamentary parties by the end of January, when the final decision on the preferred option will be made.

British engineering company Rolls-Royce and Czech utility ČEZ have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to explore the potential for small modular reactors in the Czech Republic. Rolls-Royce is leading the UK SMR Consortium, which also includes Assystem, Atkins, BAM Nuttall, Jacobs, Laing O’Rourke, National Nuclear Laboratory, Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre and TWI. ČEZ has already entered into similar agreements with NuScale and GE Hitachi.

The climate emergency has further boosted Czech support for nuclear energy, Zuzana Krejčiříková, director of public affairs at ČEZ Group, said last week during a webinar hosted by the Expert Group on Resource Management of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. The largely state-run utility's transparent approach to new-build projects has also helped public acceptance of the government's plans to support the expansion of the Dukovany nuclear power plant, she said.

Prejudice towards nuclear power among some policymakers is preventing a fact-based assessment of its benefits, including the ability to cut global greenhouse gas emissions, Bohdan Zronek, chief nuclear officer at Czech utility ČEZ, told participants in World Nuclear Association's Strategic eForum last week. ČEZ was one of seven utilities that wrote to the European Commission in March, arguing that the nuclear industry ought to benefit from future sustainable financing.

Řež, operator of the LVR-15 research reactor in the Czech Republic, has continued to improve safety since a previous review in 2003, implementing significant refurbishments to modernise the reactor's systems and components, according to an International Atomic Energy Agency team of experts. The team also found areas for further safety enhancements, inlcuding in organisation and operational safety programmes.

If the European Commission is serious about its efforts to support the post-virus economic recovery and to achieving a clean energy transition, then it will correct the omission of nuclear energy in its Green Deal package and in the EU Taxonomy, Czech and Polish ministers have written in letters to Frans Timmermans and Kadri Simons, respectively the first vice president of the European Commission and the European commissioner for energy.

The Czech Fiscal Council, Národní rozpočtová rada, has warned that financing a new nuclear power unit could have a long-term impact on the country's budget and could be "a lot higher" than current estimates.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš told reporters in Prague yesterday that the government will provide a loan to ČEZ to cover 70% of the cost of building a new unit at the Dukovany nuclear power plant, with the majority state-owned utility funding the remaining 30%. The project cost is estimated to be about EUR6.0 billion (USD6.7 billion), ČEZ CEO Daniel Beneš told the ČTK news agency, following the press conference.

The Czech government has agreed the next steps towards investment in a new nuclear power plant and given Deputy Prime Minister Karel Havlíček a mandate for talks on the project with the European Commission.

A group of local authorities near the Dukovany nuclear power plant in the Czech Republic said yesterday that plans to expand the facility must go ahead to help offset the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Czech utility ČEZ last month applied to the State Office for Nuclear Safety to construct two new reactors at its Dukovany plant, where four VVER-440 units are currently in operation at the site, which is in Vysočina Region.

Czech utility ČEZ has applied to the State Office for Nuclear Safety to construct two new reactors at its Dukovany nuclear power plant. Four VVER-440 units are currently in operation at the site, in Vysočina Region.