Howard Markle was appointed vice president and general manager of the BWX Technologies Nuclear Operations Group’s Lynchburg facility, the company said Friday.
Markle now will be responsible for operations of the Lynchburg facility, a little less than 200 miles southwest by road from Washington, which makes the reactor cores for nuclear powered warships and submarines. He was previously the facility’s deputy manager.
Markle joined BWX Technologies (BWXT) in 2022, the same year he retired from the Navy as a rear admiral, according to his LinkedIn account. He served for about 35 years.
Markle replaces Jim Bittner, who BWXT recently appointed vice president of operations and programs optimization for the company’s Technical Services Group subsidiary, the company said in the same press release in which it announced Markle’s promotion. Bittner, whose new job the company had not previously announced, had run the Lynchburg facility since 2021.
BWXT has a virtual monopoly on naval reactors. The company also manufactures naval reactor fuel and manages defense-nuclear sites for the Department of Energy.
