Engineering Bottleneck Drives Major Deals Across Nuclear Services

In the latest development with private equity firms making moves in the nuclear industry, Arlington Capital Partners has acquired nuclear engineering specialist ENERCON from funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management. 

The deal includes merging ENERCON with Arlington portfolio company Pond & Company. The combined entity will operate under the ENERCON name, creating a powerful nuclear engineering firm with more than 2,700 professionals.

And then there is the issue of where the US gets 300,000 engineers to build all this missing power supply by 2030 https://t.co/a18crhqZ4v pic.twitter.com/tinW8SHDwM

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 14, 2025

ENERCON currently supports ~90% of the nation’s nuclear plants. It also holds capabilities in small modular reactors and large-scale reactor projects. Pond contributes with strengths in federal energy, natural gas infrastructure, and mission-critical engineering services. Together, they form an end-to-end provider for regulated power and energy infrastructure.

Arlington Managing Partner Michael Lustbader highlighted the strategic timing. “We have begun a once-in-a-generation structural shift in power demand driven by AI, the onshoring of manufacturing, and changing national security priorities,” he said.

This transaction is the latest in a string of acquisitions signaling intense interest in nuclear-related engineering and services capacity…

In December, advanced reactor developer Natura Resources purchased Shepherd Power from NOV Inc. The move bolstered Natura’s project deployment, regulatory, and licensing expertise as it advances molten salt SMR commercialization for data centers and industrial users.

Earlier this year, Swedish nuclear services firm Studsvik acquired Kärnfull Next for approximately €6.5 million. The deal expands Studsvik from supporting existing fleets into full project development for new SMR initiatives in Sweden and beyond.

Energy Capital Partners also recently announced plans to acquire EnergySolutions (for the second time), a provider of integrated nuclear services spanning maintenance, modifications, decommissioning, waste management, and lifecycle support.

We just detailed this concern for lack of specialized labor in the nuclear industry with the breakdown of a report from Barclays. There is serious demand for specialized engineering talent and capacity as the nuclear renaissance gathers momentum. With utilities and tech giants alike racing to secure reliable, dispatchable zero-carbon power, the bottleneck in qualified engineering resources is becoming evident.