Czech Republic seeks a new path

Political turmoil and divisions over how to reform the state-controlled utility ČEZ are creating headaches for the nuclear envoy

Jan Stuller became special envoy for nuclear energy in 2016. A former special adviser at the International Atomic Energy Agency, he was appointed by the previous government to shepherd through a deal to build at least one nuclear reactor to replace aging Soviet-era units. His mission is to avoid a repeat of the 2014 fiasco, when a previous nuclear tender fell victim to over-optimistic financial forecasts and incompetent decisions. A measure of what Stuller is up against can be seen in the latest delay to the project. The Standing Committee on Nuclear Energy announced on 17 May that it had postponed yet again a decision on how to move forward on constructing new nuclear reactors. It said it n