It’s the latest in a rapid series of developments signalling a new epoch in civil nuclear development featuring both large, conventional plants and small modular reactors (SMRs) in Europe, North America and Asia.
Joining Amentum in the “NEXUS-NL” consortium are Arcadis, Tractebel, and NRG PALLAS.
They’ll report to the Nuclear Energy Organisation Netherlands (NEO NL), which will be established next month.
Valued at a maximum of $207m (€180m), the two-year framework agreement, with options for three additional one-year extensions, was awarded by the Ministry of Climate Policy and Green Growth.
The consortium will start with site characterisation, technology selection, and planning work scope for site enabling, utility connections and transportation links.
Amentum will lead on setting up a project management office, selecting technology, design, engineering and commercial and procurement strategies.
Arcadis will focus on siting studies, conventional licensing, and permitting. Tractebel will bring its owner’s engineering experience to define technical requirements for technology selection and will lead front-end engineering design studies.
NRG PALLAS will offer Dutch-specific nuclear expertise from the PALLAS-reactor programme, particularly on interfaces between nuclear and conventional licensing.
The Dutch government sees nuclear as a main plank in achieving climate neutrality in its energy supply by 2040.
Rolls-Royce-Amentum tie-up
This week, Rolls-Royce appointed Virginia-headquartered Amentum as delivery partner for two SMR power plants in the UK and Czechia. Turner & Townsend, Hochtief, Mace and Unipart are supply chain partners.
In the UK, the nuclear arm of Great British Energy picked Rolls-Royce SMR as preferred bidder to build three units that will deliver up to 1.5GW of capacity at the existing nuclear site of Wylfa in North Wales.
In Czechia, utility ČEZ named Rolls-Royce SMR preferred bidder to build up to 3GW of new nuclear power.
Skanska and Balfour Beatty have recently signed onto roles with Rolls-Royce SMR, with the company estimating that 8,000 long-term jobs will be created in the UK through building and maintenance.
Rolls-Royce says the “Nuclear Renaissance” is driven by SMRs, which are smaller and scalable factory-built developments.
Also this week, Texas-headquartered engineer Jacobs was awarded a five-year framework contract for programme management and project delivery services at the UK’s under-construction Sizewell C.
The company has previously won a major contract at Hinkley Point C, which recently took delivery of its second nuclear reactor. Hinkley C is due to become operational in 2031.
Last year, the UK government pledged £14.2bn to Sizewell C, following years of speculation and delay over the project. It is estimated Sizewell C will cost over £30bn.
Size Matters
The EU defines SMRs as small reactors with a maximum output of 20 to 300 Megawatt electric (MWe), producing 7.2 million kWh per day.
By comparison, conventional nuclear power plants have an output of over 1,000MWe and can produce 24 million kWh per day.
An SMR power plant can combine multiple small reactors. Rolls-Royce says each of its SMR plants will produce 470MWe and be able to power a million homes for at least 60 years. SMRs are a new technology. According to the World Nuclear Association, only two SMRs are currently operational: The Akademik Lomonosov, a floating, barge-based power station moored in the Arctic port of Pevek, Russia, run by Rosatom; and the HTR-PM plant in Shandong, eastern China.
Table courtesy of the World Nuclear AssociationIn July 2025, the intergovernmental Nuclear Energy Agency reported that 51 SMR designs are currently in the licensing or pre-licensing stage across 15 countries. Furthermore, 85 “active discussions” are taking place between site owners and nuclear developers.
What’s driving the renaissance?
The nuclear boom is driven partly by a volte-face among countries turning to nuclear to keep up with the AI boom, to hedge against energy insecurity amid geopolitical chaos, and to decarbonise.
120 companies from 25 countries signed the Net Zero Nuclear industry pledge at COP28, pledging to triple global nuclear capacity in an effort to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
Spain’s ACS Group predicts that until 2030 the market will continue to be sustained by SMRs, large-scale reactors, upgrades to existing facilities, decommissioning and nuclear fusion projects.
Amazon has hired a design and build joint venture of Canada’s Aecon and US firms Black & Veatch and Kiewit for four SMR’s at Amazon’s Cascade Advanced Energy Facility in Washington State.
The Trump administration recently agreed a $1bn loan to help reboot the Three Mile Island nuclear power station to provide electricity to Microsoft. Google has also ordered multiple SMRs from California’s Kairos Power to power AI data centres.
In October 2025, the US government announced an $80bn spend to galvanise the US nuclear industry by building a wave of new nuclear reactors and creating tens of thousands of jobs through a partnership with nuclear power company Westinghouse, uranium company Cameco and Brookfield Asset Management.
Should the initiative be expanded it could create over 100,000 construction jobs.
In August 2025, Swedish state-owned company Vattenfall announced it was selecting between Rolls-Royce SMR and American company GE Vernova as the nuclear supplier for the Värö Peninsula project located on the country’s west coast.
Turning back to nuclear
Sweden is among the countries embracing nuclear anew after disasters like the Fukushima accident in 2011.
Swiss tunneller Implenia won an “early contractor involvement” agreement for Sweden’s first underground nuclear waste repository.
Belgium has also overturned a decades-old anti-nuclear policy, as has Denmark.
Teams led by the Russian and Chinese state have signed a contract to build Kazakhstan’s first two nuclear power plants. Iran and Vietnam are also seeking international support for nuclear facilities.
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So how’s the UK’s nuclear renaissance going? US launches $80bn push for nuclear power US lends $1bn to get Three Mile Island going again for Microsoft2026 may be the year the global ‘Nuclear Renaissance’ began Global Construction Review.
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