Advanced reactor developer NuScale Power Corp. is still losing money but is otherwise in excellent financial shape, with a $ 268.6 million war chest, short-term investments of $50 million and no debt, NuScale CEO John Hopkins and CFO Chris Colbert said in a teleconference with analysts.
In the third quarter of 2022 that ended Sept. 30, NuScale posted revenue of $3.2 million and a net loss of $49.6 million, compared with revenue of $300,000 and a net loss of $27.1 million for the same period in 2021.
For the first nine months of 2022, NuScale tallied $8.4 million and a net loss of $94.4 million. In the same nine months of 2021, the company recorded revenue of $1.3 million and a net loss $74.4 million.NuScale makes money on consulting and loses money on research and development costs.
The Los Alamos National Laboratory again ordered employees and visitors to wear masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19 after transmission rates in the area rose, according to an internal lab message.
“COVID-19 community levels have moved to high in Los Alamos and Santa Fe Counties,” reads the message, the text of which the Exchange Monitor read. “In accordance with CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] guidance, masks will be required on-site at Laboratory locations in both places starting Tuesday, Nov. 15.” Masks were worn at a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board field hearing Wednesday in Santa Fe as a result.
The Department of Energy requires people at its sites to wear masks if the CDC records high community transmission levels of COVID-19. The CDC’s metric considers the percentages of new COVID-related hospital admissions and staffed hospital beds occupied by COVID patients based on the weekly average number of new COVID cases for every 100,000 people in a given county or municipality.
South Carolina State University and Department of Energy contractor Longenecker & Associates have signed a new agreement to help students at the historically-black university prepare for a career in DOE’s weapons complex, the company said in a Tuesday press release.
Longenecker, which started working with the university in 2020, will provide $10,000 in scholarship funding, along with career mentoring and internship opportunities for students, according to the release.
South Carolina State is the only historically black college or university in the nation to offer a bachelor’s degree in nuclear engineering, Longenecker said. The DOE has made minority recruitment a priority as it seeks to offset retirements by its aging workforce.