Rolls-Royce wants Siemens turbines for its modular reactors, including in Czechia

British company Rolls-Royce SMR wants to use turbines from German company Siemens Energy in its modular reactors. It plans to use them, for example, in the modular reactors planned in Czechia. It will therefore not use Czech suppliers, although Doosan Škoda Power of Plzeň had expressed interest. Ekonomický deník reported this today. Czech utility ČEZ is working with Rolls-Royce SMR on the development of modular reactors and will gradually acquire a roughly 20% stake in the British company.

According to the website, the agreement between Rolls-Royce SMR and Siemens Energy covers the design, manufacture and installation of steam turbines for future power plants using the British manufacturer’s technology. The plan is to use Siemens Energy’s factory in the UK.

According to Ekonomický deník, the British company confirmed that it also plans to use Siemens-branded turbines in the planned unit at Temelín. „Siemens Energy will be the supplier of turbine systems for Temelín and other potential sites in the Czech Republic. There are very few companies capable of providing these systems, and Siemens Energy is a world leader in nuclear steam turbine technology,“ Rolls-Royce SMR communications chief Dan Gould told the newspaper.

According to the newspaper, Doosan Škoda Power was also interested in supplying the turbines, but it has not commented on the report so far. The Plzeň-based company is likely to become the main turbine supplier for the conventional nuclear units planned at Dukovany. Representatives of South Korea’s KHNP, which won the Czech nuclear tender, said last week that this was practically a done deal.

ČEZ also plans to use Rolls-Royce SMR technology for modular reactors in Czechia. Representatives of the two companies signed a strategic cooperation agreement last October, which also provided for the purchase of around 20% of the British company for several billion crowns. Regulators approved the transaction in recent days.

ČEZ plans to build modular reactors in Czechia with a combined capacity of three gigawatts by 2050. The existing power plants at Dukovany and Temelín each have a capacity of about two gigawatts. According to ČEZ’s plans, the modular reactors would primarily supply heat and could be built, for example, on the sites of current coal-fired power plants, such as Prunéřov or Dětmarovice.

According to the group, the cost of a modular reactor should be comparable to that of a large unit, adjusted in proportion to the modular reactor’s lower capacity. ČEZ is currently preparing to build two large reactors, each with a capacity of more than 1000 megawatts, at Dukovany. At current prices, the total cost is expected to reach 400 billion crowns, according to the government.

Modular reactors can be mass-produced in factories and then installed in stages, with several units eventually clustered at a single site. According to nuclear energy experts, they differ from large nuclear units mainly in their lower capacity and faster, simpler construction. Their operation, on the other hand, could be similar.