Labs that design U.S. Navy reactors get $2.4B more

The U.S. Navy has added $2.4 billion to Fluor Marine Propulsion’s contract to run naval nuclear propulsion work at the Naval Nuclear Laboratory, the network of government labs that designs and supports the reactors powering every U.S. Navy submarine and aircraft carrier.

Naval Sea Systems Command awarded the $2,409,077,590 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification on Sept. 24, 2026, according to a Department of War contract announcement. Work will be split among the laboratory’s main sites near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (47%), Schenectady, New York (45%), and Idaho Falls, Idaho (8%). The announcement lists $582,062 in fiscal 2026 Navy operations and maintenance funds and $15,838 in fiscal 2026 shipbuilding funds obligated at the time of award, with the shipbuilding portion expiring at the end of the fiscal year.

The Naval Nuclear Laboratory is owned by the Department of Energy and overseen by Naval Reactors, a joint Energy Department and Navy program. It includes the Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, outside Pittsburgh, the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory in Niskayuna, New York, near Schenectady, the Kenneth A. Kesselring Site in West Milton, New York, where sailors train to operate naval reactors, and the Naval Reactors Facility at the Idaho National Laboratory.

The labs develop new nuclear propulsion systems, provide technical support to keep the fleet’s reactors safe and reliable, and train the sailors who run them at sea. Knolls is the lead design laboratory for the Virginia-class attack submarines and is leading reactor design work for the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines, while Bettis supports the Nimitz-class aircraft carriers and Seawolf-class submarines. The laboratory employs more than 7,500 engineers, scientists, technicians and support staff.

Fluor Marine Propulsion, a wholly owned subsidiary of Fluor Corporation, took over management of the laboratory from Bechtel Marine Propulsion Corporation on Oct. 1, 2018. The Navy-funded portion of its contract started with a cost-plus-fixed-fee base of about $1.2 billion and options that could bring its total to about $13 billion, alongside a separate Energy Department contract for the same laboratory. Earlier modifications have included a $1.78 billion award in March 2020 and a $1 billion option in 2021.

The new modification covers continued naval nuclear propulsion work across all three regions, and the Department of War contract announcement did not list a completion date for the effort.