Czech nuclear-engineering company Škoda JS is scheduled to sign a contract with Rolls-Royce SMR on 23 September covering drive systems for small modular reactors. The agreement would deepen Czech industrial participation in a reactor programme that Prague considers part of its long-term energy strategy.
The signing is expected to involve Industry and Trade Minister Karel Havlíček, British Ambassador Matt Field and executives from ČEZ, Rolls-Royce SMR and Škoda JS.
Škoda JS, based in Plzeň and owned by the ČEZ Group, was selected earlier in 2026 as one of two suppliers for several important reactor components. The proposed work includes reactor pressure vessels, internal structures and equipment for the primary circuit.
The latest contract concerns reactor drive systems, expanding the Czech company’s expected role beyond a single component category. However, the announcement concerns a supply agreement within the development programme; it is not confirmation that construction of a Czech SMR has started.
ČEZ established a strategic partnership with Rolls-Royce SMR in 2024 and acquired an approximately 20% stake in the British company. Potential Czech locations include Dětmarovice and Tušimice, both associated with existing or former conventional energy infrastructure. The first domestic unit is planned near the Temelín nuclear power station during the second half of the 2030s. ČTK’s report, published by České noviny.
Rolls-Royce’s design has an intended electrical output of approximately 470 megawatts per unit. ČEZ and its partner have discussed deploying as much as three gigawatts of SMR capacity in the Czech Republic, although the number, timing and final locations of individual reactors remain subject to licensing, financing and investment decisions.
Earlier work at Temelín has included geological investigations and an agreement allowing design, permitting and preparatory infrastructure activities to proceed. Rolls-Royce SMR has also opened a Prague office to support the programme. World Nuclear News on the Temelín preparatory agreement.
For the Czech government, the programme has an industrial as well as an energy dimension. Domestic participation could provide Czech manufacturers with contracts for reactors built outside the country, provided that the Rolls-Royce design advances from development and regulatory review into serial production.
The immediate significance of the Škoda JS agreement therefore lies in supply-chain positioning. Czechia is seeking not merely to purchase foreign reactor technology, but to embed its established nuclear-engineering sector within a potentially broader European SMR market.
