| Type | Public (NYSE: ES) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Nuclear Materials |
| Founded | 2007 |
| Headquarters | Salt Lake City, Utah |
| Key people |
Val Christensen CEO and President Mark C. McBride Chief Financial Officer Raul A. Deju Chief Operating Officer Breke J. Harnagel Interim General Counsel |
| Revenue | $448.3 million |
| Net income | $22.5 million |
| Website | www.energysolutions.com |
EnergySolutions is one of the world’s largest processors of low level waste (LLW), and is the largest nuclear waste company in the United States. EnergySolutions is a publicly traded company NYSE: ES) based in Salt Lake City, Utah, although it has operations in 40 states. Steve Creamer is the founder and former CEO of the company, which formed from the merger of four waste disposal companies: Envirocare, Scientech D&D, BNG America, and Duratek. The company took over several Magnox atomic plants from British Nuclear Fuels plc in United Kingdom on June 7, 2007.[1]
EnergySolutions owns and operates a licensed landfill to dispose of radioactive waste approximately 60 miles west of Salt Lake City, UT in Tooele County, Utah and operates another in Barnwell County, South Carolina. The company also 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 holds the naming rights to EnergySolutions Arena.
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Envirocare of Utah purchased the Connecticut-based Scientech D&D division in October 2005.[2] On February 2, 2006, Envirocare announced the $90 million purchase of BNG America a subsidiary of British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) based in Virginia.[3] The merged company would change its name to EnergySolutions, with corporate headquarters based 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.[4] 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.[5] Additionally, EnergySolutions owns two of the nation's three commercial low-level nuclear-waste repositories, although its primary competitor, Waste Control Specialists, hopes to build a fourth repository in Texas.
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.[6]
Envirocare was founded by Iranian immigrant Khosrow Semnani in 1988. Semnani served as president of the company until May 1997, when Envirocare's largest customer—the Department of Energy—requested that he step down in the wake of a bribery scandal.[7] Semnani allegedly bribed Utah's Division of Radiation Control director, Larry B. Anderson, with $600,000 in cash, gifts, and gold coins over several years. Semnani alleged that he was extorted by Anderson, and the two sued each other in civil court. Semnani agreed to testify against Anderson in a plea bargain forcing him to pay a $100,000 fine for aiding in the preparation of a false tax return.[8] Anderson was convicted to serve 30 months in federal prison on tax charges.
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.[9] Envirocare's management and ownership was retained as it made the acquisitions to become EnergySolutions.
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.[10] That year, the company formed a joint venture with another firm — Chem-Nuclear Systems, Inc. — 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.[11] 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.[4]
Since its inception, Energy Solutions has brought primarily domestic, Class A nuclear waste to Utah's west desert. However, in 2009 it attempted to bring 20,000 tons of waste from Italy's shuttered nuclear power program through the ports of either Charleston, S.C., or New Orleans.[12] After processing in Tennessee, about 1,600 tons would be disposed of in Utah. The importation attempt was eventually abandoned.[13]
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.[14] 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.[15] The Division of Radiation Control of Utah is currently considering this measure to allow Class B and Class C waste into Utah.[16] If allowed, this would make Utah, along with Texas, the only state in the nation to allow the importation of Class B and C radioactive wastes.[17]