The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) canceled or suspended contracts with International Isotopes after cesium-137 was accidentally released last year while the company was removing a blood irradiator under agency contract from a facility at the University of Washington in Seattle.
The company, which wants indemnity under a federal law covering nuclear incidents, disclosed the development Monday in its annual 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The NNSA action specifically involves International Isotopes contracts for radiological source removal.
“We believe that the loss in revenue resulting from suspension of radiological field service work will be compensated for by increased revenues in our remaining business segments,” according to the Idaho Falls, Idaho, company.
Cleaning up the incident will cost the NNSA some $20 million in fiscal 2020, which ends Sept. 30, according to Congress’ detailed explanation of the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapon agency’s 2020 budget.
The May 2019 cesium-137 release contaminated 13 people and seven floors of the Research and Training Building for the University of Washington’s Harborview Medical Center in the heart of downtown Seattle. International Isotopes was moving a blood irradiator out of the building under the NNSA’s Cesium Irradiator Replacement Project, which aims to replace weaponizable medical equipment with safer equipment.
International Isotopes aided the cleanup effort until August, after which Perma-Fix Environmental Services, of Atlanta, took over as the NNSA’s main cleanup contractor for the incident. The broken irradiator was shipped to the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory near Richland, Wash., for analysis.
In its latest 10-K, International Isotopes said its former contracts with the NNSA should indemnify the company — even if it is found legally liable for the incident — from financial damages, under the federal Price-Anderson Act. The law provides broad protection for licensed federal contractors involved with nuclear and radiological incidents, and International Isotopes has asked the NNSA to invoke those protections.
The cesium spill cost International Isotopes just under $2.5 million in 2019, almost all of which the company believes it can recover as expenses and from insurance, the 10-K says.
International Isotopes and the NNSA investigated the cause of the incident last year, and the company said it is still waiting for the results of that investigation from the federal government.
