The laboratory is part of the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, a joint U.S Navy-Department of Energy program responsible for the research, design, construction, operation and maintenance of U.S. nuclear-powered warships.
The contract changed hands again when Fluor Corporation, as their subsidiary Fluor Marine Propulsion, LLC won the contract to run the laboratory on July 12, 2018 and assumed operations on October 1, 2018.
[citation needed] The laboratory developed Oak Ridge National Laboratory's original design of the pressurized water reactor (PWR) for operational naval use.
[5] The laboratory is also home to the U.S. Navy's Bettis Reactor Engineering School.
The laboratory had been chosen to develop the Project Prometheus nuclear power source for the JIMO (Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter) project, however, funding for this program was cancelled in the fall of 2005.