The Reactor Centrum Nederland (RCN), known today as the Netherlands Energy Research Centre, was established in 1955. It specialised in the development of atomic power - later called ‘nuclear energy’ - in the Netherlands and its objective was the peaceful application of ‘the atom’. It was met with tense anticipation. Energy (still largely obtained from coal at the time) was expensive, dusty, dirty, laborious and dangerous. Atomic power held the promise of a magnitude of inexpensive and clean energy, enough to meet the needs of generations to come.
Initiatives to participate in this development were launched in the Netherlands as well. The Government wanted to safeguard the energy system; industry wanted to develop new products. Norwegian-Dutch collaboration had already been underway for some time at the nuclear research reactor in Kjeller (Norway), so the Dutch decided to build their own reactor. This High Flux Reactor (HFR) was constructed in Petten (North Holland), at a safe distance from population centres and close to cooling water. After a number of years, partly under the firm hand of Mr Jaap Goedkoop, RCN became the organisation to put the High Flux Reactor into use and run it.
At the same time, RCN, with full financial backing from the then Ministries of Economic Affairs and Education and Science, also performed a host of other tasks related to the development of nuclear energy. Within a short period of time, RCN became the priority area of the development of Dutch nuclear energy. Mr Goedkoop would remain the director of RCN, the later ECN, until his retirement in 1984.
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