AtkinsRéalis signs preferred vendor agreements with eight Candu nuclear suppliers

Candu Energy Inc., an AtkinsRéalis company, announced it has concluded Preferred Vendor Agreements (PVA) with eight companies, who accounted for over $700-million of orders in 2024 and nearly $500-million year-to-date.

“These agreements are a win-win for the Canadian nuclear sector,” said Joe St. Julian, president, Nuclear, AtkinsRéalis. “By providing our preferred partner companies in Canada with a stable, predictable stream of business, and simplifying the purchasing process, we will accelerate the development of reactors while further reducing costs and execution risk.”

Candu Energy selected these eight preferred vendors because these trusted partners have consistently delivered excellence over the years and have been crucial to Candu Energy’s ability to deliver on-time and on-budget refurbishments and life extensions. PVAs will ensure a closer collaboration and transparency between parties, focus on continuous improvement and engineering development leading to a derisked supply chain with reduced execution risk and costs, while accelerating the development of the nuclear reactors and job creation.

AtkinsRéalis has already worked with the eight companies over the last dozen years to refurbish six aging Candu reactors in Canada and around the world. It has contracts to refurbish 11 more reactors, and it also aims to build new Candus at Ontario’s Bruce Power on the eastern shore of Lake Huron, or at Wesleyville, a plant proposed by Ontario Power Generation.

They will further incentivize investment in Ontario as partner companies prepare to support the development of new CANDU reactors. The economic benefit to Ontario of these agreements will grow as more jurisdictions choose CANDU to support their nuclear ambitions.

The following companies will also benefit from preferential access to key contracts and will play an important role in the deployment of new CANDUs, in Canada and abroad:

• BC Instruments
• BWXT
• Celeros
• ES Fox
• Niagara Energy
• NWI Precision
• Senior Flexonics
• Velan

“There will be several opportunities for Canadian companies beyond national borders. We’ll collaborate to ensure they are well-positioned to benefit from export opportunities associated with our status as a Tier-1 nuclear nation,” said Gary Rose, president, Candu International, AtkinsRéalis.

Featured image: (Bruce Power)