The Czech Republic has signed a memorandum of understanding with the United Kingdom on cooperation in nuclear energy, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said yesterday after a meeting with his British counterpart Keir Starmer in London.

He said the British firm Rolls-Royce was considering building a factory for small modular reactors in the Czech Republic.

Britain last month pledged 2.5 billion pounds to build SMRs, which it hopes can help increase energy security and help the country meet its climate targets while also creating export opportunities and jobs.

SMRs can be made in factories, with parts small enough to be transported on trucks and barges and assembled more quickly and cheaply than large-scale nuclear plants.

“By working with our Czech partners on small modular reactors, we’re backing British engineering, strengthening our industrial base, and putting the UK in a leading position to export the technologies of the future,” UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer said in a statement from Britain’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero that also quoted his Czech counterpart.

“We are creating conditions for small modular reactors to be built in the Czech Republic. I think it would be a very suitable complement to the construction of two nuclear units at Dukovany,” Fiala said, adding that the government has already identified sites for this.

CEZ said in a press release yesterday that the first small modular reactor in the Czech Republic should be built next to the Temelin nuclear power plant in the mid-2030s.

Rolls Royce was selected last month to build Britain’s first SMRs. Britain’s state-owned energy company, Great British Energy – expected to sign a contract for the new plants and pick a site later this year, subject to regulatory approval.

Czech electricity producer CEZ last year said it would take a stake of about 20% in Rolls Royce’s SMR business and planned to deploy up to 3 gigawatts of the SMR plants in the country, equivalent to six units, with each unit capable of powering around 1 million homes.

Starmer and Czech Prime Minister Peter Fiala will host a business roundtable as part of the Czech premier’s visit to London, to drive closer trade and investment links between the two countries.

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