American Demolition and Nuclear Decommissioning travels the country and into Canada tearing down large contaminated structures, including old nuclear power sites.
The projects often take years to evaluate for bid and decades to complete. They do everything except the actual explosions. It’s a niche that Bill Schaab and William Sundeen Jr. feel comfortable in, as they both are sticklers for safety and procedures. They have become innovators in their field, engineering equipment to meet their needs and educating the radioactive-waste-management industry on the latest technological advancements.
The company, based in Ellicottville, New York, also achieved an exemplary safety record, surpassing 750,000 work hours and 21 years with zero OSHA reportable incidents.
For this and more, American DND was named Equipment World’s 2025 Contractor of the Year, as well as the 2025 Safety Award winner, both presented March 21 during a ceremony at the Bobby Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee.
In the video above, Schaab talks about the company’s first big job: tearing down a cooling tower at the Savannah River Site, where materials for nuclear weapons were processed and produced.
He also outlines some of the special equipment the company designed and uses to keep workers and surrounding communities safe during demolition. And he talks about how the company prepares for its complex projects and maintains a topnotch safety record.
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