EnergySolutions (stylized as EnergySolutions), headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, is one of the world's largest processors of low level waste (LLW), and is the largest nuclear waste company in the United States. It was founded by Steve Creamer in 2007 through the merger of four waste disposal companies : Envirocare, Scientech D&D, BNG America, and Duratek.
EnergySolutions has operations in over 40 states; and owns and operates a licensed landfill to dispose of radioactive waste approximately 60 miles west of Salt Lake City in Tooele County, Utah. It also operates another disposal site in Barnwell County, South Carolina. The company possesses technology to convert waste into alternative material such as durable glass, and is contracted by the United States Department of Energy to assist in waste conversion efforts. The company held the naming rights to EnergySolutions Arena from November 20, 2006 until October 26, 2015, when Vivint, a home security system provider based in Provo, Utah, acquired the naming rights to the Utah Jazz's home arena.
On June 7, 2007, the company took over operational and management responsibilities of several Magnox atomic plants from British Nuclear Fuels plc in United Kingdom through the acquisition of the BNFL subsidiary â€" Reactor Sites Management Company (RMSC).
Creation of EnergySolutions
Envirocare of Utah purchased the Connecticut-based Scientech D&D division in October 2005. On February 2, 2006, Envirocare announced the $90 million purchase of BNG America a subsidiary of British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) based in Virginia. The merged company would change its name to EnergySolutions, with corporate headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah. On February 7, 2006, EnergySolutions announced it would buy Maryland-based Duratek, a publicly traded company, for $396 million in an all-cash deal. The leveraged buyout was financed by banks led by Citigroup, effectively taking the company private.
After the acquisitions, EnergySolutions has 2,500 employees in 40 states with an annual revenue of $280 million. Additionally, EnergySolutions owns two of the nation's three commercial low-level nuclear-waste repositories, although its primary competitor, Waste Control Specialists, built a fourth repository in Texas.
Envirocare
Envirocare (also called Envirocare of Utah, Inc.) was a company that disposed of Class A low level radioactive waste (LLRW) in an engineered landfill. It began operations in 1990 and was located in Clive, Utah.
Envirocare was founded by Iranian immigrant Khosrow Semnani in 1988. Semnani served as president of the company until May 1997, when Envirocare's largest customerâ€"the Department of Energyâ€"requested that he step down in the wake of a bribery scandal.
In mid-December 2004, Semnani sold Envirocare for an undisclosed sum. Steve Creamer became the company's new CEO. The deal was financed by private equity firms, led by Lindsay Goldberg & Bessemer of New York, Creamer Investments, and Peterson Partners both of Salt Lake City. Envirocare management promised to drop plans to bury hotter class B and C nuclear waste in Utah in deference to developing political opposition to the company, which was poised to ban the waste anyway. Envirocare's management and ownership was retained as it made the acquisitions to become EnergySolutions.
Duratek
Based in Columbia, Maryland, Duratek was founded in 1983. In 1990, the company merged with General Technical Services (GTS); the resulting company was known as GTS Duratek. That year, the company formed a joint venture with another firm â€" Chem-Nuclear Systems, Inc. â€" to build a commercial vitrification system.
In 1997, GTS Duratek acquired the Scientific Ecology Group (SEG). In 2000, the company purchased the nuclear services business arm of Waste Management Inc. One year later, the company announced that it was dropping GTS from its name, and was once again known as Duratek.
Duratek was purchased by EnergySolutions at 25.7% premium over the February 7, 2006 stock price when the merger was announced.
Energy Solutions
Since its inception, Energy Solutions has brought primarily domestic, Class A nuclear waste to Utah's west desert.
On June 7, 2007, the company announced the acquisition of the UK based BNFL subsidiary â€" Reactor Sites Management Company (RSMC). The sale also included Magnox Electric Limited (MEL), a wholly owned subsidiary of RSMC, which holds the contracts and licences to operate ten nuclear reactor sites in the UK on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). Through the acquisition, the company took over operational and management responsibilities of several Magnox atomic plants from British Nuclear Fuels plc.
In 2009 it attempted to bring 20,000 tons of waste from Italy's shuttered nuclear power program through the ports of either Charleston, South Carolina, or New Orleans. After processing in Tennessee, about 1,600 tons would be disposed of in Utah. The importation attempt was eventually abandoned.
EnergySolutions has also sought at various times for the State of Utah's permission to blend, or dilute, currently accepted Class A low-level radioactive waste with more radioactive Class B and Class C wastes until it just meets the Class A waste levels its license allows per container at its Clive disposal site. Some estimate that this could increase Energy Solutions' Utah site current amount of 7,450 curies of radiation per annum (2010), to an additional 19,184 to 28,470 curies each year. The Division of Radiation Control of Utah is currently considering this measure to allow Class B and Class C waste into Utah. If allowed, this would make Utah, along with Texas, the only state in the US to allow the importation of Class B and C radioactive wastes.
On November 15, 2015, it was announced that EnergySolutions had signed a definitive agreement to purchase Waste Control Specialists for $270 million in cash and $20 million in stock.
References
External links
- Official site
