SNC-Lavalin Group said this week it selected longtime Bechtel nuclear executive Jim Rugg to replace Tom Jouvanis as president of its Atkins Nuclear Secured Holding affiliate.
Rugg, who spent more than 28 years at Bechtel, most recently as operations manager for defense and space, will officially become Atkins president on Feb. 27, according to the SNC-Lavalin press release.
Jouvanis will retire after 20 years at the helm of the Department of Energy contractor
“Meeting our clients’ strong demand for nuclear new builds and responsible waste management is the cornerstone of our nuclear sector expertise,” said Joe St. Julian, president of the nuclear branch of SNC-Lavalin, the Atkins parent company. “Jim’s experience working with the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Environmental Management and the National Nuclear Security Administration uniquely qualifies him to lead [Atkins Nuclear] into the next chapter, ensuring our clients federal market needs continue to be met.”
In the release, Rugg called Atkins “uniquely positioned to capture a greater share of the market as our clients continue to demand responsible, disciplined high-hazard operations and cleanup and decommissioning of sites while expanding their clean energy footprint for the future.”
Rugg is familiar with the DOE weapons complex.
He spent five years with liquid waste contractor Savannah River Remediation at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Previously Rugg worked as a project manager at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant being built by Bechtel at the Hanford Site in Washington state. He also was plant operations manager at the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project at the Idaho National Laboratory, according to the release.
Rugg has also been deputy project manager for the multi-billion-dollar Uranium Processing Facility at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., according to the SNC-Lavalin news release.
Atkins is lead partner for Mid-America Conversion Services, which has a roughly six-year, $717 million contract to run depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion plants at the Paducah Site in Kentucky and the Portsmouth Site in Ohio.
Atkins is also part of a United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority team seeking to design and build a prototype fusion power plant.
