Cavendish Nuclear, an international nuclear player in countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom, opened a United States office headquarters Sept. 22 in Arlington, Va., a spokesperson confirmed by email Wednesday.
The nuclear industries in the United Kingdom and United States “share many similarities in their plant designs, operational histories and in the search for safer, faster and more cost-effective technology to build, design and decommission facilities,” Cavendish said in a statement posted Tuesday on LinkedIn.
In view of this, Cavendish Nuclear’s US Senior Vice President Richard Provencher, said his company believes it can grow a larger U.S. footprint.
“We are confident that our expertise in the delivery of complex technical projects – from the dismantling of experimental reactors and reprocessing plants to the design and build of innovative waste retrieval systems and the shutdown and decommissioning of nuclear power plants – means we are well placed to support the US with its nuclear challenges,” Provencher went on to say in the online release.
Initially a few Cavendish employees will be based at the Arlington office, just outside Washington, D.C., with the intention to build over time, the Cavendish spokesperson said in response to an earlier inquiry from Exchange Monitor.
Cavendish Nuclear, part of Babcock International Group, was already testing the waters of the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup market. Cavendish was one of a couple-dozen companies that participated in a January briefings on DOE’s potential $5.87-billion Decontamination and Decommissioning Contract at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio.
Cavendish parent Babcock International Group is a London-based aerospace, defense and nuclear engineering services company. When asked if Cavendish would need clearance under U.S. Foreign Ownership, Control or Influence standards for U.S. expansion, the spokesperson said: “Cavendish Nuclear is engaging with the relevant organizations and processes to enable us to operate in the US.”
