Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
4/24/2015
International Isotopes announced this week that it has entered into contracts for most of the cobalt-60 that will be produced under an agreement with the Department of Energy to use the Advanced Test Reactor at the Idaho National Laboratory. The contracts would yield quarterly progress payments to the company during the irradiation cycle, each of which will run two to three years, the company said. “Since the October 2014 agreement was completed with the DOE, we have been in contract negotiations with several customers that were expected to commit to purchasing most of the cobalt that the ATR reactor will produce under our DOE agreement,” International Isotopes said in a release. “We are pleased to report that INIS has entered into contracts for the sale of most of the bulk cobalt the ATR will produce.”
The company added, “Although each of the Company’s cobalt contracts are slightly different, the terms of all contracts stipulate quarterly progress payments to INIS during the cobalt irradiation cycle, each of which will run two to three years. INIS has received initial down payments from each customer which in the aggregate exceed one million dollars.”
Last October, International Isotopes entered into an agreement with the Department of Energy to use its Advanced Test Reactor at the Idaho National Laboratory for the irradiation of cobalt targets for the production of cobalt-60. The agreement allows the company to use the reactor for the next 10 years at a fixed price for all cobalt material, with an annual five percent escalation in price, a Securities and Exchange Commission filing from October said. The agreement began on Oct. 1, 2014 and it has an end date of Sept. 20, 2024. International Isotopes can opt out of the agreement, though, at any time upon 180 days’ advanced written notice to DOE. According to a release, the agreement gives the company “access to all currently available cobalt production positions in the ATR, thereby making INIS the exclusive cobalt supplier from this or any other DOE reactor in the U.S.”
