Earnings rose at BWX Technologies, Lynchburg, Va., in the third quarter, which the nuclear contractor attributed during a Monday earnings report to growth throughout its naval, weapons cleanup and commercial power lines.
Net earnings for the 2022 third quarter were $61.6 million, or $0.67 a share, up from $60.2 million, or $0.63 a share, in the year-ago quarter. Quarterly revenue was $$523.7 million, up year-over-year from $498.7 million.
Operating income for the Government Operations segment was $78 million, down from $88 million a year ago, which company officials attributed in part to challenges connected to hiring and training new employees. Government segment revenue was $423 million, up from $417 million year-over-year. The revenue uptick was attributed to higher naval production and microreactors volume.
Commercial segment operating income was about $7 million, up from roughly $5 million a year earlier. Segment revenue was $102 million, up from $83 million in the year-ago period, due largely to gains in nuclear field services and fuel handling businesses.
The company hopes a joint venture it leads will in early 2023 win the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site Integrated Tank Disposition contract in Washington state, potentially worth $45 billion over 10 years, according to Monday’s earnings presentation.
Elsewhere in the DOE complex, “there remain large opportunities to manage and operate the Pantex and Y-12 sites [for the National Nuclear Security Administration] the scopes of which are clearly in our sweet spot,” BWXT CEO Rex Geveden said during the earnings call.
The nuclear weapons facilities in Texas and Tennessee, respectively, have been run by the same operator in recent years. The National Nuclear Security Administration plans to split the sites up beginning in 2023, when the semi autonomous DOE weapons agency hopes to begin competition for a standalone Pantex deal.
There are also smaller-scale opportunities for nuclear remediation at the former uranium enrichment plants at Paducah in Kentucky and Portsmouth in Ohio, Geveden said.
The contract for liquid waste remediation at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina is going well, Geveden said. The BWXT-led Savannah River Mission Completion team started work on the contract, potentially worth $21 million over a decade, in October 2021.
Although the federal government is operating under a continuing budget resolution through Dec. 16, Geveden said it should not endanger BWXT’s naval and security contracts.
