The Czech Republic plans to build two new reactors at its Dukovany plant to expand the country's nuclear energy capacity.

South Korea’s KHNP has won the contract to construct the reactors which will each have an output of over 1,000 megawatts.

The nuclear energy expansion, including an option for two more reactors, aims to double the country's output and reduce reliance on fossil fuels.

The Czech Republic, along with other European nations, is embracing nuclear energy as a sustainable option.

The project, estimated to cost over £19 billion, has faced delays due to financing uncertainties.

“Nuclear will generate between 50% and 60% around 2050 in the Czech Republic, or maybe slightly more," Petr Zavodsky, chief executive of the Dukovany project, told The Associated Press in an interview.

The nuclear expansion is needed to help the country wean itself off fossil fuels, secure steady and reliable supplies at a reasonable price, meet low emission requirements and enable robust demand for electricity expected in the coming years to power data centres and electric cars, Zavodsky said.

Martin Sedlak, programme director of the Modern Energy Union, said it would be an 'integral' part of the country's energy mix in the future, but that renewables were also crucial.

The Czech expansion comes at a time when surging energy demand and looming deadlines by countries and companies to sharply cut carbon pollution are helping to revive interest in nuclear technology.

While nuclear power does produce waste, it does not produce greenhouse gas emissions, like carbon dioxide, the main driver of climate change.

The European Union has accepted nuclear by including it in the classification system for environmentally sustainable economic activities, opening the door to financing.

That has been a boost for the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and France - the continent’s nuclear leader - that have heavily relied on nuclear.

Belgium and Sweden recently scrapped plans to phase out nuclear power.

Denmark and Italy are reconsidering its use, while Poland is set to join a club of 12 nuclear-friendly nations in the European Union after signing a deal with US-based Westinghouse to build three nuclear units.

While atomic energy enjoys public support, skeptical voices can be heard at home and abroad.

The Friends of the Earth say it is too costly and the money could be better used for improving the industry.

The country also still does not have a permanent storage for spent fuel.

The Dukovany and Temelín plants are located near the border with Austria, which abandoned nuclear energy after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear explosion.

In 2000, a dispute over the Temelín plant resulted in a political crisis and blocked border crossings for weeks.

Austria remains the most nuclear-skeptical EU country and its lower house of Parliament has already rejected the Czech small modular reactors plan.

AP video by Stanislav Hodina