According to the filing, EnergySolutions expects to realize approximately $35 million in savings through the initiative, which the company anticipates completing by the end of this year. The filing also notes, “As a result of the Plan, the Company expects to incur total restructuring charges of between $12 million and $16 million, substantially all of which represent cash expenditures. The foregoing estimated charges include between $9 million and $11 million for severance, termination benefits and employee relocation costs, and between $3 million and $5 million for facility costs.” EnergySolutions plans to use the anticipated savings to help pay down the company’s debt, according to spokesman Mark Walker. “This positions us going forward to grow,” Walker said late yesterday. “We’re a solid company and a profitable company,” he added. “We’re still operating effectively. … We’re still going to perform [our] work as expected.”
Walker said the new cost-cutting plan was not tied to EnergySolutions’ lack of success so far in its efforts to sell off its European business unit. Late last week, the U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority announced that it had been informed by EnergySolutions that it plans to continue its work managing the U.K’s Magnox nuclear power sites. “The NDA has been advised by EnergySolutions that the company will continue in its current role as Parent Body Organisation for Magnox Limited, under contract to the NDA,” according to an Oct. 5 NDA release. NDA spokesman Bill Hamilton confirmed yesterday that EnergySolutions told the NDA it is not planning a sale, and instead plans to continue managing the sites until the ongoing procurement for the new Magnox contract is completed in 2014. “That’s their decision, not ours. We had nothing to do with the decision,” he said.
EnergySolutions yesterday declined to comment on the Magnox sale. “There is nothing new to report,” Walker said yesterday. When it announced its plans to sell Magnox, EnergySolutions said it would look to complete the sale “quickly and efficiently,” but did not provide a firm time line for doing so. Any sale by EnergySolutions had been aimed to be completed by late September to avoid impacting the NDA’s procurement. Prequalification responses for the Magnox procurement are due Friday, and EnergySolutions will still “seek to Pre-Qualify on October 12th and participate in the competition process,” according to the NDA.