Skoda JS becomes sole supplier of control rod drives for Rolls-Royce SMR
Serguey Asael Shinder2 min readWorld Nuclear News reported on Wednesday 23 September 2026 that the Czech company Škoda JS has been chosen as sole supplier of control rod drive mechanisms for the small modular reactors Rolls-Royce SMR plans to build.
Two ownership facts sit underneath the contract. Škoda JS is part of the majority state-owned CEZ Group, and CEZ also holds a 20% stake in UK-based Rolls-Royce SMR. Earlier this year Škoda JS and Doosan Enerbility were selected for pre-production work on the reactor pressure vessel — described as early supplier engagement, design finalisation and manufacturing readiness "to support the delivery of first power at the earliest possible date". The Pilsen firm has now added the control rod drives to that.
CEZ describes the component precisely: each drive is a unique electromechanical linear motor, almost eight metres long and weighing 450 kg. Control rod drives move the rods that set reactor power and are central to operating it safely.
What it means
"Sole supplier" is the phrase to weigh. For a component this specialised there is no spot market, and a single source means schedule risk concentrates in one factory in Pilsen. That is normal in nuclear supply chains and it is also the thing that historically slips: an SMR programme promising many identical units needs a supplier able to repeat, not merely to deliver once.
The shareholding is the other half. CEZ owning a fifth of Rolls-Royce SMR and simultaneously supplying one of its safety-critical components is vertical integration of a kind SMR economics tends to push towards. The whole modular argument is that repetition drives cost down, and repetition is easier to guarantee when the customer owns part of the supplier.
Nothing here is a construction milestone. There is no first concrete, no site, no date: this is the supply chain being assembled ahead of a programme, which is the stage SMR ventures spend longest in.