Earnings rose at BWX Technologies, Lynchburg, Va., in the first quarter, which the nuclear services and manufacturing company attributed largely to its government operations.
Net earnings for the first quarter ended March 31 were $61 million or $0.67 per share up from $59.1 million, or $0.64 a share, in the year-ago quarter.
Quarterly revenue was $568.4 million, up year-over-year from $530.7 million, the company said in a Monday press release.
Quarterly segment operating income for the Government Operations segment was $90.6 million, up from $72.2 million a year ago. Segment revenue was $459.9 million up from $431.8 million in the year-ago period.
A BWXT-led team chosen for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site Integrated Tank Disposition Contract, potentially worth $45 billion, is the same trio of partners selected a year ago for the big liquid-waste cleanup contract at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
The partners for both teams are BWXT, Amentum and Fluor, BWXT CEO Rex Geveden said during a Monday evening conference call with Wall Street analysts.
On the same day BWXT released its earnings, the losing bidder team led by Atkins filed a bid protest with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. During the conference call Geveden was asked about a potential protest.
“Who can say how this would come out,” Geveden said. “It’s not uncommon for contracts on this scale to go through protest periods,” which can delay transition by a quarter or more, the CEO said.
Geveden said the combination of companies in the new Hanford team made him optimistic about the joint venture withstanding a protest. Three years ago, another BWXT-led group won what was then a $13-billion contract for management of Hanford’s 177 underground radioactive tanks.
Prior to DOE withdrawing the award for the old tank, an Atkins-led team that protested the move argued the BWXT-led team, by hiring the former manager of DOE’s Richland Office, at least appeared to have an unfair advantage in the procurement.
“What happened [in 2020] was there was a protest that was registered, the government sort of rethought its position, and decided to withdraw that award and add some additional scope to it,” Geveden said. The new “integrated” tank contract also includes eventual operation of the Waste Treatment Plant built by Bechtel to turn waste into glass form.
Geveden said BWXT has “rebuilt that portfolio” in DOE Environmental Management since 2015, and has enjoyed “striking success in it.” Contracts like Hanford, the Savannah River Site and the Pantex Plant in Texas, which DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration is putting on the street this year, tend to provide high returns on equity, the CEO said.
Meanwhile, “on the national security front, our government customers have called on us to support some of their most important missions including the U.S. Navy’s backing of the AUKUS trilateral security agreement and NNSA [National Nuclear Security Administration’s] management of the Nation’s legacy uranium reserve, Geveden said in the press release.
