News Releases

Nuclear Safety Associates (NSA) Acquires Omicron Safety & Risk Technologies

Johnson City, TN (January 5, 2012) — Nuclear Safety Associates (NSA) announced today that it has purchased the assets of Omicron Safety & Risk Technologies (Omicron).

Omicron, based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, executes contracts in the Department of Energy (DOE) sector of the nuclear industry, with an emphasis on nuclear safety technologies.  Combined 2011 revenue for the two companies is estimated at $31million; with approximately 150 employees.

“This acquisition expands NSA’s footprint in the DOE arena to include the Nevada Test Site, Argonne National Lab, Sandia National Lab, and Los Alamos National Lab, all places NSA has not previously had a presence,” said NSA CEO Dr. Robert L. Frost.  “When combined with NSA’s existing strengths at Y-12, Oak Ridge National Lab, Portsmouth, Idaho National Lab, Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project, and the MOX Project, we now touch most of the DOE complex.”

The acquisition expands NSA’s pool of expertise in nuclear safety and licensing technologies. The addition of Omicron’s employee’s extensive expertise in these fields brings NSA’s Nuclear Safety and Licensing business unit to 90 highly-skilled staff members, estimated to be the largest group with these specialized capabilities in the country.

The addition of the Omicron staff also expands NSA’s capabilities to include more specialty niches, including explosives safety and fire modeling, while strengthening the company’s expertise in other specialty niches such as reactor severe accident modeling and fire protection engineering.

NSA will continue to perform self-directed projects from Omicron’s Albuquerque, NM, office, which joins Oak Ridge, TN; Idaho Falls, ID; and Columbus, OH; as NSA field offices.

Omicron’s president, Dr. Louis Restrepo, will join the NSA senior management team, assuming the position of vice president, business and staff development.  Tim Solack will assume the role of Director, Albuquerque Operations.

About NSA

A premier provider of safety, security, and engineering services to the North American Nuclear markets, Nuclear Safety Associates, Inc. (NSA) has consistently made Inc. Magazine’s list of the 5000 fastest growing companies and top engineering firms in the United States.  NSA offers clients turnkey capabilities in its areas of expertise to support the entire nuclear facility lifecycle, from conceptual design through construction, operations, and ultimately, to decontamination and decommissioning.  The company employs more than 150 highly-skilled engineers, scientists, and specialists and offers clients comprehensive services along four business lines: nuclear safety & licensing, readiness assurance and operations management, safeguards & security, and specialized design engineering.   www.nuclearassociates.com

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Veteran Firms in the Nuclear Industry Announce New Venture Combining Expertise, Resources to Address Seismic Hazards & Risk Assessment

Two veteran firms in the nuclear industry, Engineering Planning and Management (EPM) and Nuclear Safety Associates (NSA), are combining their expertise in nuclear safety analysis, risk assessment and regulatory compliance to offer advanced services and solutions for nuclear plant licensees addressing seismic hazards and risk assessment.

In response to pending changes in regulatory requirements from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), EPM and NSA are leveraging their collective experience to offer clients a focused, dedicated team and the latest analysis technologies to perform the seismic and structural response analyses required, along with the corresponding probabilistic risk assessments.

“Recent attention on seismic activity around the world, along with the earthquake that hit the eastern U.S. this year, has lead to intensified regulatory focus on seismic hazards and risks for U.S. nuclear facilities,” said Wade Larson, president of Engineering Planning and Management.  “The combination of NSA’s strengths and experience in seismic and structural engineering with EPM’s expertise in systems engineering and probabilistic risk assessment  offers nuclear facility operators the strongest team of industry experts to respond to these increasing demands.”

EPM and NSA offer a comprehensive set of services to support nuclear power plant licensees responding to the anticipated NRC Generic Letter for “Seismic Risk Evaluations for Operating Reactors” associated with the resolution to Generic Issue 199 (GI-199). The EPM/NSA team offers the talent and experience necessary to address these issues in key areas of hazards analysis, seismic hazards, seismic margins, fragility analysis and probabilistic risk assessment.  The EPM/NSA team provides licensees with a complete solution designed to meet both the NRC requirements stated in the Generic Letter and, if necessary, the industry and NRC quality requirements for either a Seismic Probabilistic Risk Assessment (SPRA) or a Seismic Margins Analysis (SMA).  In addition, the EPM/NSA team has developed an introductory course designed to explain the methodology necessary to meet the NRC requirements in the Generic Letter. Course details and schedule may be obtained from the company websites.

“The ability to perform all aspects of the SMA and the SPRA by employing highly regarded experts and utilizing state-of-the art analysis techniques is a unique capability that sets us apart from the competition,” said Nuclear Safety Associates President Robert Frost, Ph.D. “We have the ability to hit the ground running and provide clients with immediate, comprehensive and effective solutions to meet new requirements.”

This new venture by EPM and NSA builds on a recent joint marketing agreement between the two companies to offer comprehensive services to improve facility response plans and to mitigate health and economic consequences of all severe accidents. Client services offered under this joint agreement include analyses of Level 2 & 3 probabilistic risk assessments (PRA) based on a facility’s existing PRA results, scenario simulations for degraded cores, containment systems, venting and filtering systems to develop updated facility source terms, modeling of plume dispersions and evacuation plans.

About EPM

Engineering Planning and Management, Inc. (EPM) has provided regulatory compliance strategies and analysis expertise to nuclear power utilities for more than 30 years, and today offers advanced engineering, software systems and risk assessment services to a variety of capital-intensive industries with unique safety challenges. EPM offers nuclear plant operators an exceptional combination of probabilistic risk analysis, systems engineering and advanced thermal-hydraulic simulations, and nuclear regulatory compliance support for the new regulatory focus on seismic hazards and their risk to safe plant operations. www.epm-inc.com

About NSA

Nuclear Safety Associates, Inc. (NSA) is an industry leader in helping clients to establish a rigorous safety basis for nuclear operations that is consistent with applicable regulatory requirements. NSA has extensive experience working in both the NRC and DOE regulatory environments, and supports new design and construction projects, operating facilities, and nuclear facility decontamination and decommissioning. NSA has expertise at all professional levels of nuclear engineering, radiological engineering, and seismic and structural engineering. The company’s nuclear engineers, seismic/structural engineers, and Certified Health Physicists (CHPs) participate in a wide variety of activities, including seismic structural response analyses, source term generation, dose assessment, atmospheric dispersion, safety analysis, and external event analyses for nuclear facilities. www.nuclearassociates.com

Inc. Magazine Announces Its Annual Exclusive List of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies—the Inc.500|5000

Nuclear Safety Associates, Inc. (NSA) Ranks No. 1222 on the 2011 Inc.5000
with Three-Year Sales Growth of 241%

Johnson City, Tenn. – September 6, 2011 — Inc. magazine has ranked Nuclear Safety Associates (NSA) No. 1222 on its fifth annual Inc. 500|5000, an exclusive ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. The list represents the most comprehensive look at the most important segment of the economy—America’s independent entrepreneurs.

This is the fourth year NSA has earned a spot on the Inc.5000, up from No. 1563 last year and No. 3995 when the company debuted on the list in 2008.  NSA was also ranked No. 19 on the list of top engineering firms in the U.S. for 2011 based on a three-year growth rate.

“Continuing to climb the Inc.5000 is a tremendous honor and testament to the talent and expertise of our employees,” says NSA President Robert L. Frost, Ph.D. “We have been able to capitalize on a strong foundation of providing nuclear safety and licensing expertise by expanding into new arenas in providing safeguards and security, design engineering and expanded technical services throughout the U.S. nuclear industry and in emerging markets.”

In addition to experiencing a 241% increase in revenue during the past three years, NSA has grown from 28 to 108 employees and has opened an office in Idaho Falls, Idaho and undergone expansions in its Oak Ridge, Tenn. and Johnson City, Tenn. offices.

In a stagnant economic environment, median growth rate of 2011 Inc. 500|5000 companies remains an impressive 94 percent. The companies on this year’s list report having created 350,000 jobs in the past three years, and aggregate revenue among the honorees reached $366 billion, up 14 percent from last year.

“Now, more than ever, we depend on Inc. 500/5000 companies to spur innovation, provide jobs, and drive the economy forward.  Growth companies, not large corporations are where the action is,” says Inc. magazine Editor Jan Berentson.

About NSA

Nuclear Safety Associates, Inc. (NSA) is an industry leader in helping clients to establish a rigorous safety basis for nuclear operations that is consistent with applicable regulatory requirements. NSA has extensive experience working in both the NRC and DOE regulatory environments, and supports new design and construction projects, operating facilities, and nuclear facility decontamination and decommissioning. NSA has expertise at all professional levels of radiological engineering and the company’s nuclear engineers and Certified Health Physicists (CHPs) participate in a wide variety of activities, including source term generation, dose assessment, dose reconstruction, atmospheric dispersion, pathway modeling, and external event consequence analysis. www.nuclearassociates.com

Methodology for the Inc. 500/5000

The 2011 Inc. 5000 is ranked according to percentage revenue growth when comparing 2007 to 2010. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2007. Additionally, they had to be U.S.-based, privately held, for profit, and independent—not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies—as of December 31, 2010. (Since then, a number of companies on the list have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2007 is $100,000; the minimum for 2010 is $2 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons. Companies on the Inc. 500/5000 are featured in Inc.’s September issue.  Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region, and other criteria, can be found at www.inc.com/5000.

Engineering Planning and Management (EPM) & Nuclear Safety Associates (NSA) to Combine Expertise, Resources to Address Severe Nuclear Reactor Accidents

Framingham, MA & Johnson City, TN (August 15, 2011) – - Two veteran firms in the nuclear industry, Engineering Planning and Management (EPM) and Nuclear Safety Associates (NSA) are combining their considerable expertise in nuclear safety analysis, risk assessment and regulatory compliance to offer advanced services and solutions for nuclear plant operators addressing severe accident risks, regulatory responses, and mitigation of offsite consequences.

EPM and NSA are leveraging decades of experience to offer clients a focused, dedicated team and state-of-the -art analysis technologies to perform the range of severe reactor accident assessments required to respond to new regulatory inquiries and compliance evaluations.

“Recent incidents in Japan have cast a spotlight on the nuclear industry and renewed a focus on severe accidents,“ says Wade Larson, president of Engineering Planning and Management.  “In response, we are teaming with NSA to offer nuclear plant operators our complementary teams of experts and techniques to prevent severe accident scenarios and mitigate their consequences without the plant owners incurring excess operational and financial burdens.  EPM and NSA have both been leaders in nuclear safety for many years, delivering the innovative strategies and technical excellence required for success in this demanding industry, and we look forward to our continued success as a team.”

Comprehensive services to be offered by EPM and NSA include:  analyses of Level 2 & 3 probabilistic risk assessments (PRA) based on a facility’s existing PRA results, scenario simulations for degraded cores, containment systems, venting and filtering systems to develop updated facility source terms, modeling of plume dispersions, evacuation plans, and population doses to improve the facility response plans and to mitigate health and economic consequences of any severe accidents.

“Combining the expertise and power of NSA and EPM as a single source under one contract offers clients the optimum solution,” says Nuclear Safety Associates President Robert Frost, Ph.D.  “Our two companies offer the best talent in the industry when it comes to nuclear safety, leveraging decades of experience and success, while focused solely on assisting clients with meeting escalating industry standards and requirements to eliminate risks.”

About EPM

Engineering Planning and Management, Inc. (EPM) has provided regulatory compliance strategies and analysis expertise to nuclear power utilities for more than 30 years, and today offers advanced engineering, software systems and risk assessment services to a variety of capital-intensive industries with unique safety challenges. EPM offers nuclear plant operators an exceptional combination of electrical and systems engineering, probabilistic risk analysis, fire protection, containment systems simulation, and software solutions to support the new regulatory focus on severe reactor accidents and their consequences. EPM’s leadership in complex nuclear regulatory compliance challenges is exemplified by its preparation of the first non-pilot plant NFPA 805 Transition License Amendment Request (LAR) submittal to the US NRC.  www.epm-inc.com

About NSA

Nuclear Safety Associates, Inc. (NSA) is an industry leader in helping clients to establish a rigorous safety basis for nuclear operations that is consistent with applicable regulatory requirements. NSA has extensive experience working in both the NRC and DOE regulatory environments, and supports new design and construction projects, operating facilities, and nuclear facility decontamination and decommissioning. NSA has expertise at all professional levels of radiological engineering and the company’s nuclear engineers and Certified Health Physicists (CHPs) participate in a wide variety of activities, including source term generation, dose assessment, dose reconstruction, atmospheric dispersion, pathway modeling, and external event consequence analysis. www.nuclearassociates.com