BWXT awarded $2.6 billion in naval nuclear reactor parts biz

BWX Technologies, based in Lynchburg, Va., announced Thursday the award of $2.6 billion in contracts, including future year options, to manufacture naval nuclear reactor components.

The contracts, which build on the $2.1 billion in awards BWXT announced in February, would support Virginia- and Columbia-class submarines, and any production from these awards would come in the next six to eight years, the press release said.

“The BWXT team is proud to produce this essential hardware that allows the U.S. Navy to carry out its critical national security mission,” Gary Camper, BWXT’s Nuclear Operations Group

President, said in the release. “That commitment to quality is the legacy that comes from our more than 70 years of service to the Navy.”

BWXT has a virtual monopoly on the naval-nuclear reactors used in U.S. naval warships and submarines, including the Virginia-class submarines that will be sold to Australia as part of the trilateral AUKUS deal among Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. 

A naval nuclear reactor is an assembly requiring highly enriched uranium fuel, which BWXT produces along with other reactor parts in its facilities in Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee and Virginia. BWXT acquired 97 acres of land in Oak Ridge, Tenn. in May after it was announced that the company would likely be awarded a sole source contract for a Domestic Uranium Enrichment Pilot Plant.