GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy said Monday it plans before the close of the year to buy a South Carolina company that produces equipment for decontamination and decommissioning of nuclear facilities.
The Wilmington, N.C., nuclear services provider did not say how much it will pay to acquire REI Nuclear and “certain assets.”
Founded nearly six years ago in Columbia, S.C., REI provides equipment for cutting, disassembling, and handling in nuclear D&D projects. It provided gear for GE Hitachi’s ongoing dismantlement of two reactors at Sweden’s Oskarshamn Nuclear Power Plant.
REI also provides project management and other services for decommissioning operations.
“With REI Nuclear’s technical and project planning expertise, we will be able to increase value for our customers by further strengthening the planning and field execution of decommissioning projects,” GE Hitachi Nuclear Executive Vice President Lance Hall said in a press release. “Together, we are positioned to capitalize on the rapid expansion of decommissioning projects worldwide and support our customers throughout the nuclear power plant lifecycle.”
While declining to discuss terms of the sale, GE Hitachi spokesman Jonathan Allen said by email Thursday the company would acquire REI’s design know-how, engineering capabilities, and intellectual property. The REI management team will remain in place in Columbia, according to Allen.
WilmingtonBiz reported Monday the deal would not cover REI Nuclear Europe, a subsidiary established in 2015 in the United Kingdom.
“GEH evaluates decommissioning opportunities as they emerge to determine how best to participate in the commercial process,” Allen wrote. ”This acquisition expands that capability which will allow us to deliver more value to customers.”
GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy provides services and technologies for the front and back ends of the nuclear fuel cycle, including development of small modular reactors. The company joined with Bechtel in 2017 to form a joint venture to provide nuclear decommissioning and dismantlement services in Sweden and Germany.
Energy services multinational Wood said Monday it has won a contract to remove and process 47 cubic meters of radioactive waste from the retired Dungeness A nuclear power reactor at Kent in the United Kingdom.
The contract covers designing, building, and managing systems for retrieving the wet material, currently held in tanks at the facility, according to a Wood press release. The waste will subsequently be processed so it can be disposed of as low-level radioactive waste.
“We are looking forward to working with Magnox Ltd on this important project, which will help to fulfil the aims of the UK government’s Nuclear Sector Deal to make decommissioning faster, cheaper and safer,” Bob MacDonald, CEO of Wood Specialist Technical Solutions, said in the release.
A Wood spokesman said Tuesday the company is not releasing additional details of the contract.
The Dungeness A reactor closed in 2006. It is among 12 U.K. sites – mostly retired nuclear power plants — decommissioned by Magnox Ltd. The company in 2019 will transfer from privately operated Cavendish Fluor Partnership to the U.K. government’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.
Current decommissioning operations cover demolition of the plant’s turbine hall and decontamination of its storage ponds, according to Magnox Ltd. In its latest business plan, NDA said operations in the 2019-2020 fiscal year at Dungeness A would include cleaning and stabilization of the ponds, preparations for extracting the Boiler Annexe, and wrapping up bulk asbestos removal from the reactor structures.
The 20-hectare facility is scheduled to enter care and maintenance mode in 2025. Final site clearance would begin in 2087 and be completed a decade later, according to the business plan.
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