Press release North Holland Province
Thursday, 3 June 2010
NRG and North Holland Province combine forces for realisation of PALLAS
The Nuclear Research and consultancy Group (NRG) and the Province of North Holland are advancing together to achieve the realisation of the new PALLAS research reactor at Petten in North Holland.
This ambition was recently clinched with NRG’s commitment to select Petten as the establishment location, and realised by a decision of the Provincial Executive to provide an interim financial contribution of up to €2 million for the preparation of this new construction project.
‘NRG is delighted with the news that North Holland is translating its ambition into an actual contribution,’ says NRG director Rob Stol. With this contribution, NRG and the Province will advance together in researching the realisation of PALLAS in Petten.
Stol: ‘We have selected Petten as the site for establishment due to among other things the readily available knowledge and the streamlined infrastructure. This offers a substantial investment lead over alternative sites. With the Province’s contribution, the preparations can now be advanced with power and focus.’
At the end of last year, the Province announced it was reserving €40 million for the development of a new PALLAS High Flux Reactor, the replacement for the present HFR. Responsible executive Jaap Bond: ‘PALLAS belongs in Petten. I am both elated and satisfied that NRG has made this choice. Through our contribution, we aim to emphasize the importance of PALLAS for North Holland.’ The North Holland Provincial Council still has to make this decision definitive. This is to happen on 28 June 2010.
Both parties emphasise that they consider the decision to be on the one hand a stimulus for regional employment, and on the other hand a showpiece for the Netherlands’ knowledge economy and a solution to the serious shortage of medical isotopes, with which millions of patients are treated every year. The HFR supplies 70% of the European demand for radio-isotopes – and no less than 30% of the global demand.
NRG and North Holland attach much value to the Government’s positive opinion that was sent in a letter to the Lower House at the end of last year. In this letter, the Government endorses the benefit and need for PALLAS, including in particular the objective to provide global health care with a consistent supply of isotopes. Besides this, it supports the ambition to remain a world player in the specialist nuclear market. If it were up to Executive Bond and NRG director Stol, action would be taken on this opinion as quickly as possible.
A price tag of over half a billion euros hangs on the new PALLAS reactor. NRG is on course for public-private financing, with the emphasis on public finance in the initial phase of the project. It is expected that in approximately ten years, PALLAS will provide at least five hundred direct (high-grade) jobs and a multiple of this as indirect jobs.
Note for editorial staff:
For further information please contact:
NRG Communications, Juliëtte van der Laan, +31 (0)224 564967, mobile +31 (0)6 10148943, e-mail: info@nrg.eu
Province of North Holland, Britta Burger, mobile +31 (0)6 48137779, e-mail: ademab@noord-holland.nl
Additional information:
More information about the PALLAS research reactor may be found at www.pallasreactor.eu
NRG is a 100% subsidiary of Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN). ECN develops high-grade knowledge and technology for a sustainable energy economy and brings this to market.