International Isotopes on Tuesday reported that sales grew by nearly $500,000 in the third quarter of 2017, but noted that its net loss also rose by over $1 million.
Sales totaled $1.9 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30, up 35 percent from just over $1.4 million in the same period of 2016, according to the Idaho Falls-based nuclear medicine manufacturer’s latest 10-Q filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. For the first nine months of the year, revenue grew by 15 percent from $4.8 million in 2016 to $5.5 million in 2017, International Isotopes said in a press release. Both increases were primarily based on higher business in the company’s radiochemical and radiological services branches.
The company’s quarterly net loss spiked on a year-over-year basis from $539,357 to $1.58 million, with the nine-month figure going from nearly $1.4 million to over $2.9 million.
“While significant, the increase in net loss in 2017 is the result of unusual non-recurring factors that are not expected to impact our financial performance after 2017,” President and CEO Steve Laflin said in the earnings release.
The net loss figures were largely the result of legal fees for a contract arbitration and a write down of the company’s purchase in August of all remaining member units in RadQual, a New Hampshire company that manufactures quality control products for the nuclear medicine and imaging industries.
International Isotopes in March 2016 demanded arbitration to recoup a cash deposit and lost revenue over a shipping container from Alpha Omega Services that was never delivered. The company initially sought $918,000 plus legal fees, and later added an $863,806 demand, raising the total to nearly $1.7 million. Alpha Omega counterfiled for $2 million plus legal fees. American Arbitration Association proceedings are due to conclude this month, with a ruling expected before January.
The legal expenses for the arbitration have ratcheted up International Isotopes’ general, administrative, and consulting costs: from $409,937 in third-quarter 2016 to $763,606 this year, and from $1.4 million for the first nine months of last year to $2.2 million in 2017.
“The Company expects that cash from operations, cash raised via equity financing and its current cash balance will be sufficient to fund operations for the next twelve months,” the 10-Q says. “Future liquidity and capital funding requirements will depend on numerous factors, including, contract manufacturing agreements, commercial relationships, technological developments, market factors, available credit, and voluntary warrant redemption by shareholders. There is no assurance that additional capital and financing will be available on acceptable terms to the Company or at all.”
That is boilerplate language in International Isotopes’ 10-Qs, and Laflin said the company is on track to become profitable next year, thanks to factors including the RadQual acquisition, an improved supply of cobalt for products used in medical and security operations, and anticipated approval in 2018 from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration of a new sodium iodide product.
Canada’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) on Nov. 10 said it had begun collecting core samples from one potential deep geologic repository site in Ontario for spent fuel from the nation’s nuclear reactors.
Drilling is underway in a rock formation roughly 22 miles from the township of Ignace, according to an NWMO announcement. This is one component of a broader assessment of the geology of the locations being considered to house the underground storage site. Evaluations are also being conducted near six other jurisdictions in Ontario.
Drilling and testing of core samples are anticipated to last for no less than three months, NWMO said. That would be followed by roughly one year of study of the data by geoscience, environmental, engineering, and repository safety experts.
The NWMO expects by 2023 to pick the location to build the repository 500 meters underground to store up to 5.4 million spent fuel bundles from over 50 years and counting of nuclear power operations in Canada. The facility is due to become operational at some point from 2040 to 2045.
Requirements for the chosen site will include a “suitable rock formation” and consent from local residents, NWMO said: “The project will only move forward in partnership with First Nation and Métis peoples and surrounding communities. The NWMO continues to move forward collaboratively with all communities and regions as the site section process moves into 2018 and beyond.”
Workers at the United Kingdom’s Sellafield site have started slowly bringing down a 61-meter-tall chimney that provided ventilation for nuclear reprocessing operations.
Demolition began last month and is expected to be completed by 2020, according to a press release from the U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA).
The 1950s-era chimney, which stands on the 61-meter First Generation Reprocessing Plant, does not meet today’s standards for seismic safety and must come down, the NDA said. It has already been replaced by a newer stack.
With other nuclear facilities nearby at the West Cumbria complex, crews will not be able to use explosives or cranes to bring down the chimney. Instead, workers standing on a movable platform will employ drills, hydraulic breakers, and other tools to take the stack apart piece by piece, placing the concrete and steel debris in a nearby waste container.
The start of demolition was the result of years of planning and preparation – it took seven months alone just to move the worker platform to the top of the stack.
Contractors Nuvia Ltd. and Delta International are conducting the demolition. The value of the contract was not immediately available.
“Starting demolition of this redundant stack is a key achievement by Sellafield and another important step towards reducing the risk and hazard posed by legacy facilities on site in order to further enhance safety,” Mina Golshan, director of the Sellafield, Decommissioning, Fuel, and Waste Division at the Office of Nuclear Regulation, said in the release.
From The Wires
From the Las Vegas Review Journal: White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said he inserted $120 million in federal funding for restarting Yucca Mountain waste repository licensing into the Trump administration’s fiscal 2018 budget plan.
From VT Digger: Entergy and NorthStar object to Vermont Public Utility Commission plan to hire a consultant to assist its decision-making on the sale of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.
