The demolition industry in the United States has become increasingly familiar with the opportunities associated with decommissioning coal-fired power plants over the past two decades.
Whether related to large power plants or smaller boilers, most demo contractors across the country have likely submitted or considered making bids for power plant work in recent years due to the income these large-scale projects can generate.
While coal may be the first source of energy to fall victim to a lower-carbon future, oil refineries, wells and drilling platforms are also slowly being phased out. And although nuclear energy does not have the same emissions problems, the older systems in this sector are reaching the end of their useful life in significant numbers.
Less nuclear weapons?
Nuclear power has long had as many critics as its supporters, and there is likely to be more shutdowns than start-ups in the sector in the next decade.
Due to its proximity to New York City, one of the most important nuclear decommissioning projects is being carried out at the Indian Point nuclear power plant in Buchanan, New York.
In order for this project to move forward, regulatory hurdles in the area of health and safety had to be overcome at both the federal and state levels.
Radiological rehabilitation and dismantling of a nuclear facility “is both technically and financially extremely demanding,” said a New York attorney general’s press release in April this year when some of these hurdles were tackled.
The New York State Public Service Commission was part of an oversight and negotiation process that also included New York State; Environmental organizations; Entergy, the utility company owned by Indian Point; and Holtec International, based in Camden, New Jersey, the prime contractor.
Approximately $ 2.4 billion in decommissioning trust funds has been raised for the contractor and all subcontractors involved to be spent on the project.
Indian Point is not the only project that Holtec is concerned with. Its website also shows the holdings in the former Oyster Creek nuclear power station in New Jersey and the former Pilgrim nuclear power station in Massachusetts.
According to a 2020 study by The Insight Partners of India available on ResearchAndMarkets.com, this work is unlikely to slow down.
The nuclear decommissioning services market was valued at just over $ 5.8 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach more than $ 9.4 billion by 2027, with bills growing 6.3 percent annually during that time.
“With large numbers of nuclear power plants nearing the end of their operating schedule, operators and governments plan to shut down the facilities, which will fuel the growth of the nuclear decommissioning services market,” write the authors of The Insight Partners report. “In the most recent scenario, the decommissioning of nuclear facilities outperforms the construction of newer facilities in the most important regions of the world.”
As governments and companies around the world seek to reduce or “decarbonize” their greenhouse gas emissions, the pace of decommissioning and demolition activities on the fossil fuel front can be even more hectic. Some demo companies are already ready to be part of this activity while others are taking steps to become more involved.
Breaking the carbon chain
In June of this year, the UK-based engineering company RVA Group launched a new service for managing processes at “[a] Number of industrial and process site closures worldwide. ”According to RVA, the number of shutdown opportunities in the global chemical, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, energy, energy, oil, gas and heavy industries“ continues to grow ”.
The sector is not new to RVA as the company says it has “successfully completed more than 850 decommissioning, decontamination, demolition and demolition (DDDD) projects around the world” when it comes to one of the earliest stages in the market Preparing a site that is to be mothballed or removed. “
Plant owners often use in-house resources to carry out the initial shutdown work, but RVA says a “lead designer” should be involved to ensure the process is rigorously planned from the start.
While the property owner can take on the role of the main contractor, “an experienced team with decommissioning thinking should be commissioned to support or write the decommissioning plan themselves and to document the detailed processes to be followed and to carry out the entire audit”, says RVA Group Manager Richard Vann .
“Nobody knows a system or a location better than the operator who has been operating it for several years,” says Vann. “If the owner refers to their operational life as ‘time’, it would be unwise to overlook the depth and value of the process and plant-specific knowledge that these people could bring with them during a decommissioning project.”
He adds, “While decommissioning is often viewed as an extension of site maintenance, it is a specific technical discipline that requires a special mindset. DDDD offers a number of options that not only make the process cost-effective, but in many cases also eliminate hazards and enable the implementation of increased environmental, health and safety standards. “
Regarding the financial arguments for the earlier involvement of decommissioning specialists, Vann says: “Sometimes operators go so far that they actually carry out unnecessary processes, as they could be carried out more efficiently and ultimately more safely during the dismantling phase. ”
In the United States, Louisiana-based Modern American Recycling Services Inc. (MARS) has been providing demolition and recycling services to customers seeking rig decommissioning, dismantling, and large-scale recycling of “all types of ships” for more than 50 years the Company.
The company found permanent employment during the oil industry’s boom years and is ready to offer its services in locations that may end prematurely if the planet’s oil needs stabilize and decline in a possible era of decarbonization.
The company has been recognized by Inc. magazine as one of the fastest growing privately owned companies for five different years since 2009, “while maintaining a safe work environment for our employees,” says founder and owner Dwight “Butch” Caton Sr.
During its five decades in business, MARS claims to have recycled nearly 10 million tons of offshore oil and gas structures and salvaged more than 10,000 barges and “hundreds of ships of various sizes”.
With the world’s richest equity funds and largest corporations increasingly focused on investing in new energy sources while turning their backs on others, skilled demolition firms with relevant experience seem poised to face a number of opportunities to capitalize on.
This article originally appeared in Sept./Oct. Issue of Construction & Demolition Recycling magazine. The author is Senior Editor at the Recycling Today Media Group who can be contacted at [email protected].
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