Perma-Fix Environmental Services said Thursday that revenue in the first quarter of 2019 dropped by $1 million from the prior year, as the company’s services branch hit a lull in business.
The Atlanta-based nuclear services provider said revenue fell from $12.7 million in first-quarter 2018 to $11.7 million in its latest earnings period. That generated an operating loss of $624,000, down year over year from operating income of $317,000. Net loss attributable to common stockholders landed at $672,000, $0.06 per share, versus a gain of $136,000, $0.01 per share, last year.
Earnings in the services business was more than halved from $3.7 million in first-quarter 2018 to $1.8 million in first-quarter 2019. “The decrease was primarily related to the timing of projects, as the Services Segment completed a number of projects by year end 2018,” according to a Perma-Fix press release. “During the latter part of the first quarter of 2019, the Services Segment was awarded several new contracts with project work for these contracts expected to commence during the second quarter of 2019.”
Perma-Fix boosted quarterly revenue in its treatment segment, from $9 million in 2018 to $9.9 million this year.
During the first quarter, the Department of Energy issued a $4.8 million contract for a joint venture featuring Perma-Fix, Aerostar Perma-Fix TRU Services, for the second phase of the Test Bed Initiative for processing low-level radioactive tank waste from the Hanford Site in Washington state. The second phase of the trial program, encompassing 2,000 gallons of waste from Hanford, is expected to be conducted this year.
On Wednesday, the Washington state Department of Ecology said it would take public comments from early June into July for a permit application for on-site work at Hanford related to Phase 2 of the Test Bed Initiative. The applicants are DOE and its tank waste contractor at Hanford, Washington River Protection Solutions.
“The Test Bed Initiative (TBI) Phase 2 project will filter and perform ion exchange on supernate from tank SY-101, depositing the pre-treated material into portable containers,” according to an Ecology press release. “The TBI Phase 2 project will be located in the 200 West Area of the Hanford Site in southeastern Washington.”
