Holtec International’s industrial activities are principally focused on four continents: Korea, China, Japan, and Taiwan in Asia; Britain, Spain, and Ukraine in Europe; Canada, Mexico, and the United States in North America; and Brazil in South America are among the countries where Holtec International has provided goods and services. It is the domestic market at home in the United States, however, that has been the catalyst for the company’s technical innovations in its fields of endeavor, which the company has successfully parlayed into business successes in overseas markets. Over 70% of Holtec’s output is consumed by the domestic power industry; the balance is destined for foreign markets. Holtec’s corporate moorings are firmly and deeply anchored in the power industry: Over 150 power generation stations in the U.S., including over 80 commercial nuclear power plants, have been Holtec customers over the past two decades.

Completed fuel Rack built at HMD

“A Generation Ahead by Design” is Holtec’s corporate credo as well as its guiding beacon. In practical terms, it means identifying a distinct industry need for a new technology and focusing the company’s resources to fulfilling the need with the best technology possible. An early example of the “A Generation Ahead by Design” creed manifested in Holtec’s drive to develop the technology to substantially increase the in-pool storage capacity at light water reactor plants in the wake of the U.S. government’s decision in 1977 to ban reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel.

In the 1980s, U.S. nuclear plants faced the looming specter of the reactors shutting down for lack of a means of storing the irradiated spent fuel. Dry storage technology for storing spent fuel was still in its embryonic stages, and public opposition to fuel transport had foreclosed the option to ship the fuel off-site for most nuclear plants.

The solution came in the form of Holtec’s ultra-high density storage rack technology that, in one stroke, doubled, tripled, even quintupled the in-pool (wet) storage capacity in most fuel pools. Through the 1980s and 1990s, Holtec “reracked” over 80 fuel pools in America and overseas, averting the loss-of-full-core reserve in reactors from Taiwan to Tennessee and giving the nuclear plant operators a safe and economical means to manage their growing spent fuel inventory for many, many years, some to the end-of-their-reactors-licensed operating life.

Over 80% of all spent fuel produced in the U.S., Korea, Taiwan, and the U.K. is stored in Holtec-supplied ultra-high density wet storage equipment. Wet expansion projects continue to play a role in the spent fuel management of many plants even to this day, although dry storage now clearly dominates the world scene and also accounts for an increasing portion of Holtec’s corporate income.

Holtec’s dry storage program, begun in 1991, similarly leap frogged the contemporary state-of-the-art by focusing on the development of the U.S. DOE espoused “multi-purpose canister” (MPC) technology. In 1999, Holtec became the first company to license a dual-purpose overpack (on-site storage and transport) – HI-STAR 100 – that utilized MPCs.

HI-STAR 100, industry's first dual purpose cask with impact limiters on a rail car

A year later, the industry’s first MPC technology based vertical ventilated module – HI-STORM 100 – was licensed for deployment under general certification (i.e., pre-approved for use in all of the territorial United States). The company continues to strive to develop the technologies to improve the human factors (health and safety features) of its dry storage and transport technology, staying a generation (always, at least one generation) ahead of its worldwide competitors. In 2004 the company unveiled its underground vertical ventilated module (VVM) technology for storage of loaded MPCs in watertight cavities that provides for storage of fuel that is unperturbed by flood, tsunamis, or hurricanes, and is seen by the industry observers as the ultimate foil to the kind of terror that struck on 9/11.

A great bulk of the company’s business backlog consists of turnkey undertakings wherein Holtec develops the design of a device or a system, secures its certification by appropriate government authorities, effectuates all required manufacturing, and finally, executes on-site installation, testing, and commissioning into service. Among projects of the turnkey genré completed by the company are both dry storage and wet storage projects in nuclear plants around the world. Since the mid 1980s, the company has delivered over $1 billion of goods and services to the power industry and has over $2 billion in derivative long-term backlog from ongoing projects.

Typical steam surface condenser designed by Holtec

Another principal product line of the company is the supply of heat exchange equipment to all segments of the power industry, including the nuclear, cogeneration, and resource recovery sectors. Over 100 power plants in four continents employ Holtec-supplied main steam surface condensers and feedwater heaters. A great many auxiliary heat exchangers used in the NSSS Systems supplied by U.S. firms are of Holtec’s design.

Enabling the energy industry to produce power safely and in harmony with the environment underlies Holtec’s decades old commitment to serve the nuclear power industry. A similar sense of commitment to the environment has been behind the company’s program, launched in 2003, to develop the air-cooled condenser technology that relies on air rather than water as the heat sink to run power plants. Reduced reliance on water, an increasingly precious resource in many parts of the world, is clearly an emerging energy technology need, and therefore, a suitable corporate calling for Holtec International.

Recognizing that solid achievements in technology take time and cost money, Holtec International has elected to remain a privately owned company, thus avoiding the pressures of the equity markets that emphasize short-term earnings. The company is thankful to its banking and insurance service providers, who have stood ready to extend loans and insurance protection on large capital projects at the most favorable rates, thus removing the need to raise funds through sale of equity. The company’s management cherishes the company's unblemished record of performance (no client litigation, no long-term debt, no unprofitable fiscal year, and no client call on any posted bond, etc.) that has enabled the banks and insurance companies to view Holtec as a splendid credit risk.

HMD fabrication bay served by two 200 ton cranes

Holtec International's goods and services are rendered through three operating divisions, namely;

• Nuclear Power Division (NPD)
• Fossil Power Division (FPD)
• Manufacturing Division (MD)

The business activity of each of the three divisions is summarized in this website. The company’s management and associates invite the visitor to this site to peruse through the body of material that elaborates on the company’s products and services, explains its quality program, and defines its corporate mission.