ATLANTA, April 17, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Inc. (Nasdaq:PESI) announces that, as part of a team lead by Portage, Inc., an Engineering and Environmental Services company based out of Idaho Falls, Idaho, it was selected for two major Master Task Order Agreement clean-up contracts at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Los Alamos National Laboratory. DOE's prime contractor at Los Alamos, Los Alamos National Security, LLC (LANS) selected the Portage/Perma-Fix team, along with several other teams, to retrieve, manage, process and disposition a variety of low-level radioactive, mixed, hazardous, and transuranic wastes that have been generated over decades as part of the DOE's nuclear weapons mission.
The first Master Task Order Agreement has a $250 million value and a three year duration. Discrete work scope will be awarded through the issuance of task orders in accordance with LANS milestones and commitments. The Portage/Perma-Fix team is required to submit proposals for these individual task orders and compete with the other two teams for a contract awards. The scope of this Master Task Order includes waste management, waste treatment, waste transportation, and waste disposal of radioactive and hazardous wastes generated from clean-up and on-going operations at Los Alamos.
Dr. Louis F. Centofanti, Chairman and CEO, stated, "We look forward to our continued support of DOE and LANS in their efforts to safely clean-up and manage wastes generated at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Perma-Fix has collaborated with DOE, LANS, and Portage over the past several years to address some of the most problematic waste streams in the DOE complex. This collaboration has resulted in large volumes of wastes, some formerly designated as 'orphan wastes,' to be treated and disposed in a safe and cost effective manner."
The second Master Task Order Agreement has a $200 million value and a three year duration. Work scope for this Master Task Order will be awarded through the issuance of task orders for work at the laboratory's Technical Area 54. The Portage/Perma-Fix team is required to submit proposals for these individual task orders and compete with the other three teams for contract awards. The scope of this Master Task Order includes waste management, waste retrieval, waste characterization, waste processing, and waste packaging of radioactive, hazardous and transuranic wastes generated from research, operations and clean-up activities at the Los Alamos National Laboratory over the past four decades. A large portion of the wastes to be managed under this contract includes transuranic waste, in both above-ground storage and in below-ground trenches, that requires specialized processing and packaging for shipment to DOE's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in Carlsbad, New Mexico.
Dr. Centofanti continued, "DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration has entered into an agreement with the State of New Mexico to remove 3,706 cubic meters of above-ground stored transuranic waste by June 2014. We believe that our team is the best qualified and the most experienced, and therefore represents the best opportunity to successfully accomplish this very important milestone. We look forward to supporting DOE and LANS to meet this important commitment. Perma-Fix has significant experience with transuranic wastes and the challenges these wastes pose through our highly successful work retrieving, packaging and managing transuranic waste at DOE's Hanford Reservation, and we are committed to achieving that same level of success for LANL and the state of New Mexico."
About Perma-Fix Environmental Services
Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Inc. is a nuclear services company and leading provider of nuclear 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 Department of Energy ("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 four nuclear waste treatment facilities and provides nuclear services at DOE, DoD, and commercial facilities, nationwide. Please visit us on the World Wide Web at http://www.perma-fix.com.
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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: value of each of the two Master Task Order Agreements; our continued support of DOE and LANS in their efforts to safely clean up and manage waste; our team is the best qualified and the most experienced, and therefore represents the best opportunity to successfully accomplish this very important milestone. 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; failure to appropriately fund these agreements by the federal government; cancellation or negotiation of these agreements by the federal government; changes in federal, state or local laws; reduction in amount of waste that our team is allowed to treat, transport and/or dispose; and the additional factors referred to under "Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" of our 2011 Form 10-K. 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.