Founded in 1859, Skoda is one of the major industrial manufacturers of nuclear reactor parts today. Though owned by a Russian company, it is almost completely employed by Czechs and has a long history in the country. Prior to WWII, when Hitler took control of Czechoslovakia, one of his main goals was to gain access to Skoda, which was then a major producer of artillery shells. In fact, the German presence here was so strong during the war that Skoda was referred to as "Hermann Göring Works"!
Today, Skoda employees staff at both Temelin and Dukovany NPPs, and has built units in Hungary, Slovakia, etc. The company's production of both primary circuit material as well as fuel handling systems (both wet and dry storage) goes into smaller research reactors, as well. The coolest part of our tour - not pictured - was seeing the absolutely GINORMOUS warehouses where this stuff is built. We were even able to look inside a nearly-completed fuel storage container and see the recognizable hexagonal grid for fuel storage! #nerdalert