Perma-Fix earned significantly less in the first quarter of 2013 than it did in the same quarter last year, reporting Friday revenue of $19.8 million, compared to $37.9 million in first quarter of 2012. The company reported a profit of $537,000 in the first quarter versus $4.4 million for the first quarter of 2012. Perma-Fix CEO Louis Centofanti blamed reduced profits on lower revenues. “We continue to see weakness in both our operating segments as a result of delayed and redirected government spending,” he said in a statement. However, we are beginning to see signs of improvement including some initial small contracts we have been recently awarded. We remain optimistic the market will improve as the year progresses and that in 2013 we will achieve improved operating results and cash flow compared to last year.”
The company is also hoping that technology it has developed can be used to treat material in high-level waste tanks at Hanford. “We are aggressively pursuing a number of significant opportunities treating more complex and higher activity waste streams, including solutions we developed to address tank waste at the Hanford, Washington site,” Centofanti said. “We have treatment technologies and permitted facilities in place that could be utilized to rapidly and effectively address problematic waste streams such as these, which have become a very high priority for the DOE.”