EnergySolutions is moving to make changes to its longstanding team in the competition to run Canada’s national nuclear laboratory system, RW Monitor has learned. In response to Atomic Energy of Canada Limited’s plans to find a private contractor to manage its national labs, four years ago EnergySolutions formed CRNL Partners, which also includes SNC Lavalin. However, this week EnergySolutions is set to disolve that arrangement with an eye toward bringing on a partner with experience at the U.S. nuclear weapons laboratories. Though the new team may ultimately still include SNC Lavalin, other partners will likely be brought on board. Notably, EnergySolutions has teamed with Bechtel—which is part of the management team at Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories—on several recent bids, including most recently the Paducah deactivation contract and the U.K.’s Magnox competition. EnergySolutions declined to comment yesterday.
AECL announced its plans for the procurement early this year. Responses to a request for information were due last month, and this fall AECL plans to start a Request for Response Evaluation process that will involve detailed consultations with back and forth feedback. The scope of the new contract will include all AECL-owned sites, including the Chalk River Laboratories, the Whiteshell Laboratories, the three prototype reactor sites and the Laprade heavy water storage site. The Chalk River nuclear reactor currently produces the majority of the world’s Molybdenum-99 medical isotopes. AECL said that it anticipates making a decision on the future of Chalk River in 2014.