Atkins Nuclear Secured Holding Corporation (ANS) has appointed Jim Rugg as its new president.

Rugg takes over from Tom Jouvanis, who is retiring after 20 years with the company. 

Rugg will lead ANS’ market growth by supporting clients in delivering complex nuclear and high-hazard industrial projects and diversification of the company’s project portfolio in site management and operations, cleanup and decommissioning work, nuclear new build and net zero initiatives. 

“Meeting our clients’ strong demand for nuclear new builds and responsible waste management is the cornerstone of our nuclear sector expertise,” said Joe St. Julian, president, Nuclear, SNC-Lavalin. 

“Jim’s experience working with the US Department of Energy, Office of Environmental Management and the National Nuclear Security Administration uniquely qualifies him to lead ANS into the next chapter, ensuring our clients federal market needs continue to be met.” 

Rugg has experience in execution across facility lifecycles, organisational leadership, and business development. He intends to build upon ANS’ strengths in site management, nuclear operations, speciality engineering and technology based cleanup approaches while leading the organisation towards new growth markets within the sector, to include the defense and aerospace industries.

Most recently, he was operations manager for defence and space for Bechtel, where he was responsible for providing management guidance and monitoring the performance of all projects within the business unit. 

“ANS is uniquely positioned to capture a greater share of the market as our clients continue to demand responsible, disciplined high-hazard operations and cleanup and decommissioning of sites while expanding their clean energy footprint for the future,” said the new president. 

He is well-known in the nuclear industry, delivering to the Department of Energy (DOE) and Environmental Management (EM). Prior to joining Atkins Nuclear Secured Holdings Corporation, he spent five years at the Savannah River Remediation (SRR) liquid waste project, managing the safe storage and treatment of high and low-level radioactive waste.

Before that, he worked in a project management capacity at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant in eastern Washington State and in plant operations management at the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project in Idaho.

In addition to DOE-EM work, he has experience working on National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) programmes as the deputy project manager for the multi-billion-dollar Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, TN.