Comprehensive Decommissioning International, a new joint venture of SNC-Lavalin of Montreal and Holtec International of Camden, N.J., plans to seek reactor decommissioning work, the companies said in a statement Wednesday.
Comprehensive Decommissioning International (CDI) will be based in Camden, according to a joint press release.
The companies had not identified any specific decommissioning projects they plan to pursue, or said who would lead the new joint venture at deadline Friday for RadWaste Monitor.
“This is backed by several key opportunities we anticipate will be awarded in the next 12 months,” Holtec spokeswoman Joy Russell wrote in an email this week.
Russell and SNC-Lavalin spokesman Nicolas Ryan, who responded to question in a separate email this week, said CDI will try to hook up with any decommissioning project in any capacity. Neither would identify specific targets.
“We do not have a limit on the number of plants we are able to support or manage,” Russell wrote.
“Our key strengths come in the form of decommissioning project management experience, decommissioning cost estimating, strong financial capability and good standing with creditors, and Holtec’s ability to take custodial ownership of” spent nuclear fuel, Ryan said.
Holtec is trying to obtain a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission license to build and operate an interim waste-storage facility in eastern New Mexico, which could hold used nuclear fuel until the Department of Energy builds a permanent waste storage site, such as Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev.
Holtec hopes to obtain a license in 2020 and have the interim storage facility operating by 2022.
Paving the way for CDI, SNC-Lavelin in 2017 bought the giant British engineering and consultancy firm WS Atkins for a little more than $2.5 billion. The acquisition boosted SNC-Lavelin’s expertise in managing decommissioning and waste management projects, Russell and Ryan said.
