Anticipating that the Department of Energy’s deconversion facilities will run at about 50 percent capacity, international Isotopes said yesterday that it sees an opportunity to contract with the agency to help address its 1.6 billion-pound backlog of depleted uranium. Working with DOE may be the best way to secure acceptable financial backing for INIS’ planned depleted uranium deconversion and flurorine extraction facility, President and CEO Steve Laflin said during a conference call with investors yesterday. “We’re finding that receiving favorable terms for any financing typically requires 100 percent contract coverage for the expected products and the service revenues that we forecast in our financial model,” Laflin said, whereas INIS’ current contract with URENCO only requires about 50 percent of the company’s initial plant capacity. Therefore, Laflin said the company has started exploring offering deconversion services to DOE.
DOE has started up two of its own deconversion plants, but the agency “has encountered a myriad of technical and process issues with those plants, and based upon their reports, we believe those plants will only run at about 50 percent of their originally-stated capacities,” Laflin said. “Therefore, we believe we can offer deconversion service to DOE at a lower cost and not threaten to continued operations of its own deconversion facility.” Laflin said the 50 percent projection is “purely our own interpretation of what has taken place to date.” He added: “There have been presentations that DOE themselves have made at several conferences, there was a press release four to six months ago talking about some of the difficulties and what’s actually taken place at the facilities. Certainly DOE has not announced the 50 percent figure, that’s just our estimate based on the capacities and what they’ve stated in their presentations.”
Last week the company reported disappointing financial results for the full year 2012, with revenues for all segments down around 20 percent. The deconversion facility, granted a construction and operating license by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in October, represents the biggest growth opportunity for the company. Yesterday Laflin said, “Increasing revenues this year is my number one priority, to ensure we have the cash necessary to be patient and receive suitable terms to advance the depleted uranium deconversion process, which I want to emphasize we still believe presents an outstanding business opportunity for the company.”
Jobs