Trump, Macron and Dukovany

Like Emmanuel Macron before him, Donald Trump threw a potential spanner in the works of the Dukovany nuclear-power project on Friday. Trump's action was much less direct and took the form of four executive orders (here, here, here and here) for boosting the U.S. nuclear-power industry. Most importantly for Czechs, he called for accelerating the "secure and responsible development, demonstration, deployment, and export of U.S.-designed advanced nuclear technologies." He wants to "unleash the domestic nuclear industrial base and position American nuclear companies as the partners of choice for future energy growth throughout the world." Only insiders will be able to judge the full significance of this. But if KHNP is in talks to buy Canadian-American Westinghouse, as has been rumored, Trump's executive orders can be good news for Czech suppliers if the deal goes through, or bad news if Macron takes this to mean that France must try all that much harder to kill the Dukovany project.