Alva Energy announced today that Rich Kalman has joined the company as Senior Vice President of Projects, where he will provide the execution backbone for Alva’s power-uprate and new-build programs. With more than 40 years in nuclear construction, operations, and large-scale project management, he has overseen tens of billions of dollars in capital work across the full nuclear lifecycle—from planning and licensing through construction, major component replacements, decommissioning, and license termination. Rich has set multiple U.S. and world records in nuclear construction, including the fastest Reactor Vessel Closure Head replacement with an Integrated Head Assembly ever performed worldwide and the fastest Steam Generator Replacement in U.S. history (and second-fastest globally), achievements that earned NEI’s TIP Award for World Class Performance.
Before joining Alva, Rich served as Executive Sponsor for the $1.8 billion firm-fixed-price decommissioning of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), the largest commercial nuclear D&D project ever undertaken in the United States. Over eight years, he held full P&L responsibility and led a joint AECOM/EnergySolutions team across safety, environmental compliance, cost, schedule, and stakeholder engagement. Under his leadership, the project became a reference case for complex decommissioning—recognized for its safety performance, rigorous environmental stewardship, and on-schedule, on-budget execution.
Prior to SONGS, Rich was President of SGT, an AECOM/Framatome joint venture that was the world’s leading company for major NSSS component replacements. He led SGT through a period of significant growth and diversification, expanding the business from a single-focus replacement contractor into an agile EPC provider capable of projects ranging from sub-$50 million jobs to the largest, most complex nuclear construction efforts in the U.S. He also helped establish SGRT, a Canadian joint venture with AECON, and secure its first contract at Bruce Nuclear Generating Station, opening the door to $800 million in additional project work.
Earlier in his career, as Senior Vice President of EPC Operations at Parsons, Rich managed engineering, project controls, and construction for energy-sector projects worldwide, including the Humboldt nuclear D&D and the National Enrichment Facility, where he developed and championed an approach to seismic Class I structures that accelerated the project’s critical path. His previous roles at Peach Bottom and Limerick, as well as recovery work on Saudi Aramco’s Qurayyah Seawater Injection Plant, further honed his ability to stabilize and deliver challenged projects. Rich began his career finishing construction at TMI Units 1 and 2 and held leadership roles at major EPC firms and utilities, helping to bring dozens of nuclear units into operation in the 1980s and 1990s as part of the last great wave of U.S. nuclear plant construction.
A civil and structural engineer by training, Rich’s leadership philosophy balances strategic oversight with hands-on engagement: he dives to the right level of detail, sets clear accountability, and pushes teams toward ambitious but credible “stretch goals” of early, under-budget completion—the same discipline he will now apply to Alva’s uprate fleet.
