SNC-Lavalin and Holtec International group on Friday announced a new US-based joint venture company named Comprehensive Decommissioning International, LLC (CDI) that will focus on decommissioning shuttered nuclear power plants.
CDI will be headquartered in Camden, New Jersey. The two partners said the company's "priorities are safety and environmental stewardship as it performs accelerated decommissioning of retired nuclear power plants."
Using innovative technologies, CDI is equipped to cut the total time elapsed to release plant sites for unrestricted use to eight years or fewer, pending local regulatory approvals (with the exception of the temporary dry storage installation)," said SNC-Lavalin and Holtec in a joint statement.
Decommissioning has become a rapid growth market with a forecast value exceeding $14 billion over the next ten years, the companies said. The safe deconstruction of nuclear power plants requires complex project planning and project management, specialized nuclear skills, proven processes and innovative technologies.
The two companies are already working together on small modular reactor development,m focusing on the SMR-160 as a joint project. In addition, "we will leverage our used fuel storage and transport expertise, now in use by 110 nuclear reactors around the world, to pave the way for what we call prompt decommissioning,” said Holtec’s President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Kris Singh.