ATLANTA, Jan. 22, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Inc. (NASDAQ: PESI) today announced that Veolia Nuclear Services’ (VNS) new 10-tonne GeoMelt® In-Container Vitrification (ICV™) plant, cooperatively installed and operated by Perma-Fix at the Perma-Fix Northwest (PFNW) facility in Richland, Washington, has successfully completed hot commissioning and its first in a series of demonstration melts for the US Department of Energy (DOE) Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to treat sodium contaminated radioactive wastes.
The contract with the INL to treat the sodium contaminated wastes follows successful engineering scale demonstrations of the patented GeoMelt® technology earlier in the year. The goal of the engineering scale testing was to confirm the ability of the GeoMelt® technology to create a safer treatment approach that lowers the lifecycle cost to disposition radioactive contaminated reactive metal waste streams resulting from decommissioning sodium cooled reactors. The demonstration, supported by glass formulation and crucible testing, consisted of a series of bench scale ICV™ melts that processed elemental sodium into a stable non-reactive form.
The objective of the new INL contract, awarded in September to VNS Federal Services LLC (VNSFS), is to demonstrate at full-scale the treatment capabilities of the GeoMelt® technology by chemically converting the reactive metals to an inert oxide, thereby delisting the sodium hazard in the waste and immobilizing and stabilizing the radioactive contamination. Under the agreement, Perma-Fix and VNS (www.nuclearsolutions.veolia.com) will treat the drums contaminated with radioactive sodium wastes. The Fermi Drums were received at INL in the 1980s. They were contaminated with low-level radioactively contaminated elemental sodium from the Enrico Fermi Atomic Power Plant and have been maintained at INL for decades. However, as a credit to the partnership with INL, the maturity of the technology and an aggressive construction schedule, the team successfully completed the first melt of 55 drums of radioactive contaminated sodium wastes on December 20, 2018.
Mark Duff, Perma-Fix President & CEO, stated, “I am pleased to report we successfully completed hot commissioning and an important demonstration project for the US Department of Energy Idaho National Laboratory to treat sodium contaminated radioactive wastes. Expanding our PFNW facility to accept and treat sodium contaminated radioactive wastes provides an outlet for these wastes that is not currently available. This successful demonstration marks an important milestone in our partnership with Veolia Nuclear Solutions and illustrates the unique nature of our facilities, permits and capabilities. Importantly, we continue to execute on our strategy to broaden our market base by treating complex waste streams through new technologies and partnerships within our industry.”
About Perma-Fix Environmental Services
Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Inc. is a nuclear services company and leading provider of nuclear and mixed waste management services. The Company's nuclear waste services include management and treatment of radioactive and mixed waste for hospitals, research labs and institutions, federal agencies, including the DOE, the Department of Defense (DOD), and the commercial nuclear industry. The Company’s nuclear services group provides project management, waste management, environmental restoration, decontamination and decommissioning, new build construction, and radiological protection, safety and industrial hygiene capability to our clients. The Company operates three nuclear waste treatment facilities and provides nuclear services at DOE, DOD, and commercial facilities, nationwide.
Please visit us at http://www.perma-fix.com.
This press release contains “forward‑looking statements” which are based largely on the Company's expectations and are subject to various business risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the Company's control. Forward-looking statements generally are identifiable by use of the words such as “believe”, “expects”, “intends”, “anticipate”, “plans to”, “estimates”, “projects”, and similar expressions. Forward‑looking statements include, but are not limited to: successful treatment of drums contaminated with radioactive sodium wastes. These forward‑looking statements are intended to qualify for the safe harbors from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. While the Company believes the expectations reflected in this news release are reasonable, it can give no assurance such expectations will prove to be correct. There are a variety of factors which could cause future outcomes to differ materially from those described in this release, including, without limitation, future economic conditions; industry conditions; competitive pressures; our ability to apply and market our new technologies; the government or such other party to a contract granted to us fails to abide by or comply with the contract or to deliver waste as anticipated under the contract; inability to win bid projects; that Congress fails to provides continuing funding for the DOD’s and DOE’s remediation projects; ability to obtain new foreign and domestic remediation contracts; and the “Risk Factors” discussed in, and the additional factors referred to under "Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" of, our 2017 Form 10-K and Forms 10-Q for quarters ended March 31, 2018, June 30, 2018 and September 30, 2018. The Company makes no commitment to disclose any revisions to forward‑looking statements, or any facts, events or circumstances after the date hereof that bear upon forward‑looking statements.
Please visit us on the World Wide Web at http://www.perma-fix.com.
Contacts:
David K. Waldman-US Investor Relations
Crescendo Communications, LLC
(212) 671-1021
Herbert Strauss-European Investor Relations
herbert@eu-ir.com
+43 316 296 316