Czech Rolls-Royce SMR Submits EIA Documentation

en.Wedoany.com Reported - Czech company ČEZ has submitted the environmental impact assessment documentation for the Temelín SMR project, and the Czech Ministry of the Environment will conduct a review and public consultation. The project adopts the Rolls-Royce SMR, with the first unit planned to enter operation in the second half of the 2030s.

ČEZ has submitted the environmental impact assessment documentation to the Czech Ministry of the Environment for its Rolls-Royce SMR small modular reactor project at Temelín.

Submitting the environmental impact assessment (EIA) is a key step in the licensing process, aimed at assessing the potential impacts of the proposed SMR project on the region and proposing measures to minimize these impacts.

ČEZ stated that the company attaches great importance to water resources. When selecting and preparing the SMR site, water availability was one of the fundamental criteria. Preliminary preparation work included detailed surveys and long-term monitoring, with particular focus on water resources and their future availability. Results to date confirm that water availability will not pose an obstacle, even considering increasingly severe droughts.

The Czech Ministry of the Environment will evaluate the documentation and conduct a public consultation. The EIA process is expected to be completed by the end of 2027.

Daniel Beneš, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of ČEZ, stated that ČEZ plans to incorporate SMRs alongside large nuclear power plants and renewable energy sources in its planning. This is also a major opportunity for Czech companies. The SMR supply chain is currently taking shape. Companies that join this global supply chain from the outset can expect to win orders for decades to come, as they will supply all SMR units in the Czech Republic and overseas.

The Rolls-Royce SMR is a design using small pressurized water reactor technology with a capacity of 470 MW electric. The SMR will provide at least 60 years of stable baseload power generation. The SMR measures approximately 16 meters × 4 meters, with 90% to be built under factory conditions; on-site work is mainly limited to assembling prefabricated and pre-tested modules, thereby significantly reducing project risk and potentially substantially shortening the construction schedule.

In October 2024, ČEZ selected Rolls-Royce SMR for a nuclear power project with a total installed capacity of up to 3 GW to be deployed in the Czech Republic, and ČEZ acquired a 20% stake in Rolls-Royce SMR. Under the plan, the first SMR will be deployed at the Temelín site area (which already hosts two GW-class VVER-1000 units), with subsequent projects to be developed at coal-fired power plant sites including Tušimice.

In June 2025, Rolls-Royce SMR was selected by the UK government as the preferred technology for the country's first SMR project. In November 2025, the UK government announced that Wylfa on the island of Anglesey in North Wales will be the site for deploying three Rolls-Royce SMR units. The UK government stated that the site, where a Magnox nuclear power plant is being decommissioned, could potentially accommodate up to eight SMRs in the future. A final investment decision is expected in 2029.

The submission of the EIA documentation follows the signing of an early engineering contract between Rolls-Royce SMR and ČEZ to support site preparation work and advance the permits required for construction at Temelín. It also builds on a memorandum of understanding signed earlier in 2026 between Rolls-Royce SMR, ČEZ and the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade, which created the conditions for site preparation activities for further deployment projects at Tušimice and Dětmarovice.

The UK project is expected to be the first Rolls-Royce SMR project to enter deployment, with Temelín to host the second project, targeting operation in the second half of the 2030s.