Croatia wants to learn from the Czech Republic about small modular reactors.

The Croatian Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Gordan Grlić Radman and his Czech colleague Petar Macinka confirmed at a meeting in Zagreb that the two countries plan to deepen cooperation in the field of energy, with special emphasis on nuclear energy and exchange of experience in the area of small modular reactors (SMR)

Otherwise, Croatia views nuclear energy as a key pillar of decarbonization, energy security, and competitiveness, and official Zagreb notes that it is extremely interested in "Czech experience and know-how" in managing both large nuclear power plants and small modular reactors.

The Czech Republic and SMR experience

But although diplomatic messages sound ambitious, behind them lies an obvious technological paradox that political elites in the region systematically conceal: The Czech Republic, despite its rich tradition in the nuclear industry and operation of large power plants (Dukovany and Temelín), has no practical, operational experience with small modular reactors.

The Czech Republic, like the entire West, does not have a single operating commercial SMR reactor nor a functional prototype. The only country in the world that practically possesses and operates SMR technology is Russia (Akademik Lomonosov).

In this sense, it is unclear which “experience and expertise” officials refer to when they speak about small modular reactors. True, the Czech Republic has an exceedingly rich experience with operating nuclear power plants, and in principle, given that the majority of current proposals for small modular reactors of classical design – light-water reactors; that is indeed valuable experience – but there is no experience with commercially operating small modular reactors. In fact, we do not even know what the specifics are in the commercial operation of small modular reactors, since there is almost no global experience with them.

The Zagreb meeting was also marked by the organization of a bilateral nuclear forum in which experts from both countries participated. Grlić Radman stressed that Croatia is considering various options and cautiously approaches defining the future energy mix: "We are considering different nuclear technologies that include small modular reactors, but we are not prejudging future decisions. Croatia sees great potential in this."

The Czech side, for its part, emphasizes that it has never abandoned the nuclear course – unlike some Western European countries that were closing their capacities – and that it is ready to share general knowledge about managing nuclear systems with Croatia.

S.A.