After merger with Jacobs’ government business, Amentum eyes areas of nuclear growth

Amentum, which last week absorbed Jacobs Solutions’ government service business, is eyeing business opportunities at U.S. nuclear-weapon sites and in nuclear energy, its CEO told the ExchangeMonitor this week.

Prior to Friday’s merger, Amentum, spun off from Aecom in 2020, was part of three big nuclear-weapons-cleanup contractors serving the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management. On two of those contracts, Amentum was the lead partner.

At active nuclear-weapon sites managed by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), however, Amentum had a much smaller presence.

“Amentum has not been a significant player there, and I think we have a lot to offer,” John Heller, CEO of the combined, publicly traded company told the Monitor in a phone interview. “I think the government sees us as having real, valuable capability to deliver in that market. So we are going to be focused there as well.”

The pre-merger Amentum took a few swings at NNSA business over the last several years. It briefly captured some in 2021, as junior partner on a Fluor-led team that won a contract, canceled before performance began, to manage both the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

Amentum was also among the companies involved with the bidding for a subsequent standalone contract to manage Pantex. That deal, with options worth up to $30 billion over 20 years, went instead to PanTeXas Deterrence, led by BWX Technologies and including Fluor and others.

“[W]hen you think about the nuclear operations in the U.S. … there are sites where … there are, you know, massive facilities that need operations, capability and leadership, and we see that as kind of our, our opportunity as well, to pursue work there … [d]oing operations support for the weapons development and sustainment area,” Heller said.

The new Amentum does not plan to chase big DOE site-management with wholly owned subsidiaries, Heller said.

“[T]he breadth of these projects will probably still require partnerships to, to bring all of the capability that the customer is looking for,” said Heller.

Heller also said the new Amentum’s experience in the U.K. and its expertise with cybersecurity distinguish it among its competitors.

“I think we bring now a much deeper capability in cybersecurity than we had before, and something I think our customers on the nuclear side are definitely concerned about and are dealing with every day,” Heller said.

Meanwhile, Amentum is also looking to add business from what many see as a burgeoning nuclear renaissance, Heller said. There will be opportunities in the U.S., the United Kingdom and Europe, including with traditional light-water reactors and advanced reactor designs that have yet to come to market.

“[W]e’re not like baking in a lot of modular nuclear reactor growth into our business model yet,” Heller said. “But we are at the point of the spear, working with eight different companies that are building out different options.”