Czech morning news in brief: top headlines for May 28, 2021

Documentary filmmaker Sommerová to replace Feri in lower house

Documentary filmmaker Olga Sommerová, 71, will replace Dominik Feri (TOP 09) the 24-year-old MP who resigned earlier this week over accusations of sexual violence and harassment, in the Chamber of Deputies on June 1. Sommerová ran in the 2017 general election in Prague on the TOP 09 list of candidates, winning 9,204 preferential voters. She said she would like to focus on support for culture and defense of the public Czech Television in the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the Czech parliament. Feri announced on Tuesday that he would resign as MP as of May 31 after several women accused him in the media of sexual harassment and violence. He also said he would not run in the autumn general election. The Deník N and Alarm servers published the testimonies of a number of women saying Feri had behaved inappropriately in 2015-2020. The police are investigating the suspicions on the basis of the article. Feri said he would defend himself in court. ČTK

Slovakia to open travel to Covid-vaccinated

As of May 31, Slovakia will not require quarantine from the Covid-vaccinated who visited an EU country or about ten other states with a favorable epidemiological situation in the two weeks preceding their arrival in Slovakia, the Chief Public Health Office said Thursday. Exemptions from the quarantine duty, valid for selected professions, groups of athletes, and those commuting across the border to work, will remain in force. The green countries, to which the most lenient Slovak entry rules will apply, are all the remaining 26 EU member states as well as, for example, Australia, China, Iceland, Israel, and Norway. On arrival from these countries, travelers will have to register online, after entering Slovakia. Those arriving from the green countries will not have to quarantine themselves if 14 days have elapsed since the second dose of a vaccine based on mediator RNA or if 28 days have elapsed since the first dose of a vector vaccine. Quarantine duty will continue to apply to travelers without Covid vaccination who arrive in Slovakia; for those arriving from "red" and "black" countries, the quarantine duty will remain in force also for those vaccinated. ČTK

RegioJet begins train connections to Croatia today

The first RegioJet train connection to Croatia will depart from Prague's main railway station this afternoon. So far, about 400 tickets have been sold; the train is about 75 percent full. The Split section of the train is sold out completely; vacancies remain in the Rijeka section. In total, over 30,000 tickets have been sold for this year's summer trips and interest is considerable at the beginning of the season a spokesman told ČTK. A test site has been set up at the railway station in Prague, where the travel agency, in cooperation with a certified testing agency, is performing valid antigen tests 60 minutes before departure. The test site can be used by passengers who can prove a valid ticket for RegioJet train or bus connections. In June and September, trains will run three times a week, and in July and August, they run daily in each direction. Last year, the company's trains ran only to Rijeka and transported over 60,000 people in both directions. ČTK

Prague will cooperate with state on Vltava Philharmonic concert hall

The Prague City Assembly approved on Thursday a memorandum of cooperation with the Culture Ministry on building a new philharmonic seat in the Vltavska locality near the city center and took note of a study based on which private investors may share the project's CZK-five-billion costs with the city and the state. The new building, hosting the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and the Prague Symphonic Orchestra FOK, is to be completed in 2032. It is to have three halls, a concert hall for 1,800 people, a smaller one for chamber music and 500 listeners, and a multipurpose hall for other genres and other than music events, with the capacity of up to 700 seats. It is also to offer commercial premises such as stores, cafes, and restaurants and is to be open throughout the day. Debates about the construction of a modern concert hall in Prague have been underway for decades. ČTK

Czech firm building new reactor, first of its kind in Europe

The UJV Rez company is building a new reactor cooled by helium, which will generate the fissile material in the fuel by itself and which is the first reactor of this type in Europe, a spokesperson for the UJV (Institute of Nuclear Research) announced Wednesday. The reactor can be used mainly as a source of heat for the effective production of hydrogen and in the chemical industry, possibly also in the processing of spent fuel from classical nuclear units. The reactor may start serving the commercial sector after 2040. Within the HeFASTo (helium-cooled fast reactor), scientists have been developing a reactor with a thermal output of 200 megawatts. One of the significant economic contributions of the fast reactor is the effect of fuel multiplication. Through nuclear reactions during its operation, the reactor generates more fissile material than it consumes, the head of UJV Rez's team said. Potential investors will be invited to join the project after 2025. The Czech HeFASTo is the second development project of the UJV Group. ČTK