By John Stang
Perma-Fix Environmental Services said Wednesday its GeoMelt radioactive waste treatment system is scheduled to complete its testing by Dec. 31 and should begin operating in the first quarter of 2019.
“We are making progress with the GeoMelt system,” Perma-Fix President and CEO Mark Duff said during the company’s quarterly earnings conference call.
In January, the Atlanta-based nuclear services company announced cooperative deal under which Veolia Nuclear Solutions would deliver one of its GeoMelt systems for use at Perma-Fix’s Richland, Wash., waste treatment facility. Geo-Melt converts radioactive waste into a glass form for disposal.
The two companies said at the time they would carry out treatability studies to show Geo-Melt could be used for processing of metallic, non-bulk sodium-contaminated waste produced from sodium coolant employed at nuclear reactors. Tests are being conducted on small volumes of contaminated sodium wastes from two Department of Energy facilities: the nearby Hanford Site in Washington state and the Idaho National Laboratory.
While Duff has been clear that the system would eventually be put to commercial use, Perma-Fix on Wednesday declined to elaborate on the potential customers being lined up or on the volumes of waste it expects eventually to process.
Duff briefly mentioned with no elaboration Perma-Fix’s Test Bed Initiative, a pilot program for treatment and disposal of low-level radioactive waste from Hanford. After a completed initial phase involving 3 gallons of waste, the Department of Energy and Perma-Fix have planned a second test that would grout 2,000 gallons.
On Wednesday, Perma-Fix declined to comment on the status of the Test Bed Initiative, including the scheduling for the second test. Last spring, the company indicated the second phase would take roughly a year. The Energy Department also did not comment this week on the status of the program.
Perma-Fix reported revenue of $12 million for the third quarter of 2018, compared to $11.8 million for the same period in 2017. Revenue for the first nine months of 2018 came in at $37.8 million, slightly up from $37.2 million on a year-over-year basis.
The company’s quarterly gross profit was $1.8 million, a slight step up from $1.7 million last year. Over nine months, it recorded a gross profit of $7.2 million, compared to $6.8 million over the same stretch of 2017.
Operating loss for the third quarter of $1 million was nearly half the loss from 2017 of $1.9 million. Meanwhile, net income attributable to stockholders of $221,000 ($0.02) was a turnaround from a $2 million net loss ($0.17 per share) over last year.
“For the third straight quarter, this year, we achieved revenue growth and profitability despite continued and unexpected delays related to the closure of our East Tennessee Materials and Energy Corporation facility,” Duff said. “We now expect the facility to be closed on or before the end of the year, which we expect will resulting a positive impact on the performance on the overall company.”
