US-Based SNC-Lavalin JV Affiliate Signs Multi-Year Contract With Holtec To Decommission US Nuclear Power Plant

Comprehensive Decommissioning International, LLC (CDI), a joint venture company of SNC-Lavalin and Holtec International, has been awarded a nuclear decommissioning contract, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, by Holtec Decommissioning International.

Earlier today, Exelon Generation and Holtec International announced the conditional sale of the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station located in Ocean County, New Jersey to a Holtec subsidiary.

Under the contract, CDI will be responsible for decommissioning the plant beginning in 2019, pending transaction closure. This will include the demolition and cleanup of the site. CDI will seek to perform the decommissioning faster and more cost effectively than the original decommissioning plan proposed by Exelon Generation.

"We have taken our first major step forward today in building CDI’s decontamination and decommissioning business,” said Mark Morant, President, US Nuclear, SNC-Lavalin. “This project is vitally important to the local community in the Lacey Township region and we look forward to accelerating the safe clean-up of the shuttered nuclear plant site to restore most of the land to unrestricted use and in the shortest time possible,” added Dr. Krishna P. Singh, President and CEO of Holtec International.

CDI was formed earlier this year with the goal of performing accelerated decommissioning of retired nuclear power plants using innovative technologies to cut the total time elapsed to release plant sites for unrestricted use to eight years or fewer, leaving only the spent fuel (ISFSI) on site, pending local regulatory approvals (with the exception of the temporary dry storage installation).

Exelon Generation announced in February, its decision to retire the Oyster Creek facility no later than October 2018. Under the terms of the Holtec and Exelon Generation agreement, which is subject to regulatory approvals, a Holtec subsidiary will assume ownership of the site, real property and used nuclear fuel after the plant has permanently shut down. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2019.