The two companies signed a deal Tuesday to develop and produce SMRs together, with the first one to be installed at the Temelin nuclear plant in the Czech Republic roughly by 2035.

CEZ runs two nuclear plants in the EU member state of 10.9 million people -- Temelin and Dukovany, both in the south of the country, with total output of some 4,000 megawatts, which covers around 30 percent of Czech power consumption.

"We have an ambitious plan to build 3,000 megawatts by 2050," CEZ chief executive Daniel Benes told reporters, hailing the deal as "a historic milestone in the Czech nuclear programme".

Benes said the total costs have not been calculated yet, but Rolls-Royce SMR chief executive Tufan Erginbilgic said the project was "a multi-billion-pound opportunity".

"As partners, we brought together engineering and financial expertise alongside nuclear pedigree to ensure we can deliver on the shared goal on building stable, secure, low-carbon power," Erginbilgic said.

The Czech government said in September it had picked Rolls-Royce SMR out of seven contenders including US giant Westinghouse, the US-Japanese grouping GE Hitachi and France's EDF.

CEZ said earlier it was planning to install up to 10 small modular reactors by 2050.

Compared with conventional nuclear reactors, the SMRs are relatively simple to build, as their systems and components can be factory-assembled and transported as a unit to a location for installation.

They are also more affordable than large power reactors and bear low risk of a serious accident.

In July, CEZ announced it had chosen South Korean power giant KHNP to build two conventional nuclear units at a cost of almost nine billion dollars at Dukovany.

The new units will raise the share of nuclear energy to half as coal-fired power stations are gradually phased out as part of a shift towards greener energy resources.

The government expects the first new KHNP reactor to be launched in trial operation in 2036.

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CEZ

ROLLS-ROYCE HOLDINGS

TOSHIBA