Las Vegas-based Longenecker & Associates said Tuesday it has hired nuclear industry veteran Mike Briggs to the newly created post of senior program manager for operational support.
Briggs, who has worked on major projects within the Energy Department complex, will oversee L&A’s operational support business, which includes training, nuclear safety, and radiation protection.
“As L&A grows, we are increasingly being called upon to support nuclear operations and provide nuclear safety expertise to key DOE and [National Nuclear Security Administration] NNSA projects,” CEO Bonnie Longenecker said in a news release. “Mike is a proven leader in this area and we are proud to have him as part of our team.”
Briggs spent more than a decade with Virginia-based BWX Technologies and its prior corporate entities. He helped oversee safety, industrial hygiene, and radiation protection at Nuclear Waste Partnership, DOE’s prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. Briggs also held management positions for cleanup of DOE’s Paducah Site in Kentucky and BWXT’s Nuclear Fuel Services business. Prior to BWXT, he worked for BNFL at the Sellafield nuclear site in the United Kingdom, among other positions in the United States and abroad.
Longenecker & Associates was recently named by Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) as a key subcontractor on the legacy nuclear cleanup award at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico.
The firm was also on the team that briefly in summer 2016 secured the contract for management of the Nevada National Security Site. The contract was quickly revoked when it was determined the contractor had been transferred from Lockheed to Leidos without notifying DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration. A Honeywell-led venture subsequently took the contract. Longenecker, though, is part of the security team for the Nevada facility.
Separately, Clemson University and DOE’s Savannah River National Laboratory, both in South Carolina, said Wednesday that Clemson nuclear environmental engineering professor Brian Powell will fill a joint faculty post for research into radioactive waste disposal and environmental remediation. The joint appointment should increase cooperation between Clemson and Savannah River, the two organizations said in a press release.
Valhi Inc. reported a pre-tax gain of $58.4 million in the first quarter of 2018 on its sale of Waste Control Specialists, according to the Dallas-based holding company’s latest earnings report.
That was good for a net of $38.2 million, $0.11 per diluted share, after income taxes, Valhi said in its 10-Q filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The gain is included within Valhi’s discontinued operations line item.
The gain was recorded “because the carrying value of the liabilities of the business assumed by the purchaser exceeded the carrying value of the assets sold in large part due to the long-lived asset impairment of $170.6 million recognized in the second quarter of 2017 with respect to our Waste Management Segment,” the 10-Q says.
On Jan. 26, Valhi finalized the sale of Waste Control Specialists to J.F. Lehman & Co. The private equity firm is now owner of a 1,338-acre complex in Andrews County, Texas, for disposal of low-level radioactive waste and other waste types.
In the 10-Q, Valhi noted that Waste Control Specialists – which represented the entirety of its waste management business – had for years been a money loser due to challenges in producing “sufficient recurring disposal volumes.” The sale to J.F. Lehman should allow the company to focus on its other, higher-returning business lines: chemicals, component products, and real estate management.
Valhi made $100,000 in unspecified capital expenditures for its waste management business in the first quarter.
Company-wide for the quarter, Valhi reported $51.7 million in net income, $0.15 per diluted share. That represented a major spike from $14.4 million, $0.04 per diluted share, in the same period of 2017, largely due to increased strength in the chemicals business.
Lynchburg, Va.-based BWX Technologies has named Joel Duling, currently leading its Nuclear Fuel Services subsidiary, to become president of its Nuclear Operations Groups as of June 22.
Duling will succeed Joe Henry, who is retiring. Before joining Tennessee-based Nuclear Fuel Services five years ago as director of operations, Duling served at the Y-12 National Security Complex as vice president of production. In that role he was responsible for the refurbishment of nuclear weapons components.
Duling has 30 years of management level experience in the nuclear and manufacturing sectors, BWXT said in a news release last week.
BWXT’s Nuclear Operations Group manufactures naval nuclear reactors. “I am exceedingly pleased that Joel has agreed to step up and take on a new and very crucial role for our company,” BWXT President and CEO Rex Geveden said in the news release.
NFS, which is part of the group, makes nuclear fuel for the Navy. The Nuclear Operations Group reported $317 million in revenue for the first quarter of 2018, a 2.6 percent decrease from the $325 million reported a year earlier. BWXT attributed the difference to the timing of contracts.
“We also wish Joe Henry all the best in retirement. As a retired Two-Star Admiral with the U.S. Navy, Joe brought tremendous operational discipline and leadership to BWXT. He will be missed,” Geveden said. Henry was president of Nuclear Fuel Services for three years and also served a year as a vice president of EnergySolutions, according to his LinkedIn profile.
