News

The High Flux Reactor in Petten, from now on, produces only medical isotopes with low-enriched uranium. Until recently, the productions for NRG’s Belgian partner IRE were still based on high-enriched uranium, because IRE could not fully process low-enriched uranium. But now IRE has, partially, converted its chemical process to low-enriched uranium. This means that NRG can take the final step and end using high-enriched uranium in the HFR.

The Foundation NRG and the Foundation Preparation Pallas-reactor (PALLAS) intend to fuse together as one organisation, as announced by Bertholt Leeftink, CEO NRG/PALLAS, today during the New Year’s Toast. This spring, the proposal for the new organisation will be further detailed. “By combining our forces, we are able to make large steps forward in the development and production of nuclear medicines used for diagnostic purposes and for the treatment of patients suffering from life-threatening diseases. To this end, we need to establish a state-of-the art infrastructure that is being developed as we speak,” said Bertholt Leeftink.

NRG has kicked-off the Nuclear Innovation Conference discussions online with a round table discussion and testimonials from some of the parties supporting the NIC.

Terrestrial Energy and Nuclear Research and Consultancy Group (NRG) have started a graphite irradiation testing program at NRG’s Petten Research Centre’s High Flux Reactor (HFR) in the Netherlands.

NRG started a new experiment within their Molten Salt Technology Program. The experiment aims to simulate what happens when the molten salt cools down to below 150 oC.

The Coronavirus has a worldwide impact. The outbreak of this and the accompanying government measures lead to a situation that we have never experienced before. NRG follows developments closely and adopts the national measures that the Dutch government prescribes.

Last month, the reactor in Petten had a record production and was therefore able to continue to provide 30,000 patients daily with medical isotopes. The Corona crisis has caused complications for transport and logistics and due to this the European manufacturers are now turning to NRG.

Amended governance The NRG Foundation (previously: Foundation ECN) and the Foundation Preparation Pallas-reactor (PALLAS) have made an important step forward. The executive board members and the supervisory board members of both organizations will sit on the boards of both companies, via a so-called “personele unie” (a situation in which both organizations continue to exist autonomously, even if the same executive and supervisory boards govern them).

The old chemical laboratory and the old materials science laboratory, of both approx. 65 x 50 metres, have been remediated and emptied radiologically, chemically and asbestos in recent months. In addition to the old laboratories, the south-facing 40-metre-high chimney is also disappearing.

Radiopharmaceuticals are vitally important. That’s why NRG|PALLAS, together with partners like AVL, are working on the development of new radiopharmaceuticals in our FIELD-LAB. With this development, we are reinforcing NRG|PALLAS’ leading position in the field of medical isotopes worldwide. We’ve now succeeded in developing a new, efficient and high quality production process for lutetium-177. In order to meet the increasing demand for this kind of radiopharmaceuticals in the future, we will embark on the construction of an isotope production facility (the Nuclear Health Center) next year, followed by the construction of the PALLAS reactor to replace the High Flux Reactor in Petten.

Nuclear Research & Consultancy Group (NRG) and McMaster University’s Nuclear Reactor (MNR) have teamed up to advance customer service to a new level