The PALLAS-reactor is the successor to the Hoge Flux Reactor (High Flux Reactor or HFR). Early 2004, the current owner of the HFR, the Nuclear Research Group (NRG), initiated PALLAS together with a group of companies and research institutes, namely Mallinckrodt Medical (currently Curium), Reactor Institute Delft (part of TU Delft) and the European Institute for Energy and Transport (JRC-IET). NRG was involved in the initiative as project manager, worked on the further elaboration and implementation of the project and set up a dedicated project team in 2009.
The high age of research reactors across the globe increases the risk of unplanned halts to production. This problem led to a global shortage of medical isotopes from 2007-2011. In order to secure the supply of medical isotopes on a global scale, the Dutch government decided to replace the High Flux Reactor. The Ministry of Economics and the province of Noord-Holland granted PALLAS 80 million euros in the form of a loan to finance the first phase.
With the establishment of the Foundation Preparation Pallas-reactor (December 16, 2013) the PALLAS project was incorporated in an independent entity. This foundation is engaged in the preparation of the construction of the new medical isotope reactor and the operation (or commissioning) of the PALLAS-reactor.
Read the statutes (in Dutch) of the Foundation.