During an earnings call Tuesday, BWXT Technologies President and CEO Rex Geveden sounded less like a boss disheartened by seeing a $13-billion contract award undone than someone eager to land a bigger payday before long.
In December, the Department of Energy cancelled the Tank Closure Contract that a BWXT-led team won in May after losing bidders protested to the Government Accountability Office.
The good news, Geveden told analysts during the fourth quarter call, is DOE’s move to combine management and closure of 177 underground tanks of radioactive waste with a solicitation for direct feed low-activity waste. It makes for “a much bigger opportunity.”
The “delayed opportunity” will be about 60% larger in scope than the tank contract, Geveden said. The CEO did not say if the potential value of the contract would be 60% greater as well but he did say that “BWXT remains postured to help DOE to help the DOE with its evolving mission at Hanford.”
Geveden declined to say whether it would be the same BWXT-led team that would pursue the direct-feed contract. “No comment on teammates. … because we are in the sensitive stages on that,” he said.
For the tank contract, Virginia-based BWXT was teamed up with Texas-based companies Fluor and Intera, plus Richland, Wash.-based DBD.
The DOE has publicly said to expect issuance of a request for proposals for the combined tank management-direct feed contract by the end of the first quarter. When asked, Geveden speculated that an award could come by the end of the year although there is no way to be sure, he added.
The U.S. government accounted for about 77% of BWXT’s consolidated revenue during 2020, according to the company’s form 10-K report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission this week.
Much of that comes from contracts to build reactor components for the U.S. Navy — a business on which BWXT holds a virtual monopoly.
