Pallas reactor ready to enter construction phase, minister says

Monday, 7 July 2025

In a letter to the House of Representatives, Jansen gave her approval for the project to proceed to the construction phase following the conclusion of the Gate Review - an assessment by independent external advisers - that the programme organisations (NRG-Pallas and the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport) were ready and they had the ability to successfully manage and control the implementation phase of the Pallas reactor project.

NRG-Pallas applied in June 2022 to the Dutch regulator, the Authority for Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection, for a permit to construct and operate the Pallas reactor. ANVS granted a construction licence in mid-February 2023. Preparatory work on the foundation began in May 2023. This work was carried out by Belgian construction firm Besix, which was awarded a contract in November 2022.

In May, NRG-Pallas announced that the building of the construction pit - a hole of about 50 metres by 50 metres and 17.5 metres deep - and the foundation for the Pallas reactor had been completed.

"NRG-Pallas and its partners are ready to start the next phase; the start of the construction of the reactor building and the associated systems," NRG-Pallas said. "In her letter, the minister states that the Gate review report shows that the project organisation and the ministry are ready to actually start the implementation phase."

The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport is closely involved in the Pallas project as a shareholder of NRG-Pallas, as a financier of the project and as a policy maker.

"We are pleased that the decision to proceed with the implementation phase of construction was taken by the Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport before the summer recess," said NRG-Pallas CEO Maurits Wolleswinkel. "Every day, many thousands of patients inside and outside the Netherlands depend on medical isotopes produced in Petten for their diagnosis or treatment.

"With the construction of the Pallas reactor as a replacement for the current High Flux Reactor, we can ensure security of supply in the future. The Netherlands and Europe do not want to become dependent on other countries for this. NRG-Pallas can start construction expeditiously and further expand its leading position in the market for medical isotopes."

Although funding had been allocated in the coming years for the construction of the Pallas reactor, the Dutch government has yet to make a final decision on its construction. The European Commission has already approved, under EU state aid rules, the Dutch government's plan to invest EUR2 billion (USD2.2 billion) in the construction of Pallas.

Former Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport Ernst Kuipers instructed NRG-Pallas not to take any irreversible steps, but to continue with the preparations for the project in the meantime to avoid unnecessary delays.

The Pallas research reactor is to be built at Petten to replace the existing High Flux Reactor (HFR). The 45 MW HFR started operating in September 1960, since when its use has largely been shifted from nuclear materials testing to fundamental research and the production of medical radioisotopes. The reactor - operated by NRG on behalf of the European Union's Joint Research Centre - has for a long time supplied about 60% of Europe's and 30% of the world's medical radioactive sources.

Pallas will be of the "tank-in-pool" type, with a thermal power of around 55 MW, and able to deploy its neutron flux more efficiently and effectively than the HFR.