Construction Update PALLAS Programme enters execution phase
On the 1st of July 2025, caretaker Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport, Daniëlle Jansen, informed Parliament that the PALLAS project can proceed to its next phase. This announcement reaffirms the project’s significance and highlights that NRG PALLAS, together with its partners, is fully prepared to move forward with the construction of the reactor building and its associated systems.
Alongside this positive news, steady progress continues at the construction site in Petten. Preparatory works for the reactor building are well underway, and construction has already begun on the pit for the secondary cooling system building.
Reactor Building: Preparatory Works
The first phase of the reactor construction includes realisation of three underground floors. The construction of the PALLAS-reactor building has begun with essential preparatory works in the construction pit: the perimeter of the future reactor building has been marked, a protective membrane installed, reinforcement bars placed, and an 8-cm concrete layer poured. To support heavy lifting and material delivery during construction, three tower cranes will be in operation. Foundations for all three cranes have been completed, and the first crane is currently being assembled. It will soon be visible to all who pass by the Energy & Health Campus.
Secondary Cooling System
The secondary cooling system building is part of the PALLLAS-reactor secondary cooling system. This isolated system contributes to cooling the reactor by circulating water extracted from the Noordhollandsch Kanaal (inlet of the pipelines) and disposed to the North Sea (outlet of the pipelines). To allow the construction of the building, the construction pit is being realised in the first step. Retention walls, executed over the summer using the Cutter Soil Mix (CSM) technique, now form the pit’s perimeter and allow excavating the area to construct the building. Since late August, drilling has been underway for 327 micro-piles – 30-metre long steel piles drilled to a depth of -40 NA, filled with grout, and designed to support the future secondary cooling system building.
Preparations are also progressing for the installation of the cooling water pipeline, which will extract water from the Noordhollandsch Kanaal and discharge it into the North Sea.
