It was not clear this week how a Canadian company’s multibillion-dollar offer to acquire engineering giant Atkins would affect the company’s work on the Energy Department’s legacy nuclear cleanup operations.
The companies on Monday confirmed they were in talks for SNC-Lavalin Group of Montreal to acquire London-based Atkins for about $3.5 billion. The transaction would include Atkins’ North American subsidiary.
An Atkins spokesperson declined to comment on the effect of the merger on the joint-venture companies Atkins uses to perform Cold War nuclear cleanup work for the Energy Department.
Atkins has a presence, among other places, at DOE’s Hanford Site in Washington state, and the Portsmouth and Paducah sites in Ohio and Kentucky.
At Portsmouth and Paducah, Atkins is the lead partner on the Mid-America Conversion Services joint venture with Fluor and Westinghouse, the latter of which filed for bankruptcy last week. In February, Mid-America started work on a five-year contract worth almost $320 million to convert DOE-owned depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) into depleted uranium oxide for reuse or disposal, and aqueous hydrofluoric acid for industrial use.
Atkins is also a partner on the AECOM-led Washington River Protection Solutions, lead contractor for the tanks farms at the Hanford Site, where the agency stores more than 55 million gallons of liquid radioactive waste left over from Cold War plutonium production.
Under U.K. law, SNC-Lavalin has until May 1 to make a firm offer for Atkins, according to Atkins’ statement about the merger talks.
