Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
2/7/2014
Although International Isotopes has had to place its proposed uranium de-conversion largely on hold, the company remains hopeful that it will eventually secure enough contracts to move forward with the project, INIS President Steve Laflin said during a call with investors this week. The company announced in its third quarter results last year that active engineer designing and construction for the facility, to be built in New Mexico, needed to be put on hold after it could not secure financing without contract commitments. “While the three other commercial enrichment companies we were in discussions with years ago have not moved forward with their plans, neither have they canceled their projects,” Laflin said. “We remain confident that one or more of these new enrichment projects will come to fruition in the next several years. When they do, we will be ready to resume contract talks, admit our remaining facility capacity, obtain project financing, and proceed with the design and construction of the facility in Hobbes. In the meantime, we remain in a very fortunate position of being able to wait.” Laflin also highlighted the recent announcement from the Department of Energy that would allow GE Hitachi’s Global Laser Enrichment to build a facility that can re-enrich depleted uranium tails at its Paducah site as a potential partner that could use the Hobbes facility for de-conversion services for depleted tails resulting from the GLE process.
During this week’s investor call, INIS also discussed its preliminary financial results for 2013, which saw the company suffer a net loss of $2.4 million, up ten percent from 2012; and its total revenue came in at $6.8 million, down about ten percent from 2012. Much of the blame for the poor year was attributed to the poor performance of the company’s cobalt product technologies, but Laflin remained hopeful that this sector would bounce back in 2014. He said he anticipates a 30 percent increase in total revenue for 2014, as well as a positive cash flow balance for the year. Laflin said that audited, official results for 2013 would be available “sometime in March.”
Part of the expected growth in revenue should come from the radiological services segment, Laflin said. “The field service work mainly consists of supporting the removal, packaging, and shipping of radioactive sources from older radiation units that have been abandoned or taken out of service and need to be decommissioned,” Laflin said. “We believe there will be many opportunities for field service work in 2014, and as part of our efforts to increase opportunities in this area, we have designed and constructed a portable hot cell unit to support this service work. Our field service capabilities utilizing this portable hot cell have been recognized by the U.S. government and IAEA, and we hope to have numerous contract opportunities for its use both in the U.S. and overseas for 2014 and beyond.”