Friday, 1 August 2025
Belgian engineering firm Tractebel announced it has signed a new mutual agreement with NRG-Pallas to extend their long-standing collaboration on the construction of the Pallas research reactor in Petten, the Netherlands.
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Tractebel – part of France’s Engie Group – has more than 60 years of experience in nuclear engineering and since 2015, alongside its subcontractor NucAdvisor, has acted as Owner’s Engineer for the planned Pallas reactor. This has involved providing multidisciplinary expertise in engineering, safety, licensing and project management.
The company said the extended agreement “reinforces Tractebel’s commitment to supporting the reactor’s successful completion”.
Tractebel said its contribution “entails embedding long-term experts within the integrated project team with the support of Tractebel’s global nuclear competence centres, acting as an independent third-party reviewer for civil engineering works, and holding a Safety Chair position within the Pallas Safety Committee”.
The company also plays an active role in delivering training and facilitating knowledge transfer to strengthen the Intelligent Customer and Design Authority capabilities of the Pallas organisation. It said its experts have worked on all phases of the Pallas project, from initial feasibility studies and the tendering phase to the various design phases and now construction.
Tractebel has provided engineering services for: siting and licensing support (supporting detailed site characterisation and preparing licensing documentation, both nuclear and conventional); design and safety (ensuring compliance with nuclear safety and engineering standards – including technical Health, Safety, and Environment in design, reviewing technical specifications and safety analysis reports); project and risk management (supporting procurement strategies and risk mitigation); and construction oversight (advising on civil works, including the complex foundation and pit construction.
“This project demonstrates Tractebel’s ability to support complex, multidisciplinary endeavours, while maintaining the highest standards of safety, technical integrity, and project delivery,” said Deepak Narasimhamurthy, Country Manager, The Netherlands, Tractebel. “It also shows how international collaboration, technical expertise, and a shared mission can drive innovation in healthcare and energy. This new agreement demonstrates NRG-Pallas’s trust and our shared objectives, positioning Tractebel as a long-term strategic partner in the Netherlands’ nuclear future.”
In March 2023, Tractebel signed a memorandum of understanding with NRG-Pallas to collaborate in providing engineering services for the construction of large nuclear power plants in the Netherlands.
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 this year, 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.
Last month, the Netherlands’ outgoing Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport Daniëlle Jansen informed the House of Representatives that the project to construct the Pallas research reactor is ready to enter the next phase of construction.
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), which began operating in September 1960 and supplies 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.
