Howard Brous: That’s quite a large opportunity. Over the last several quarters, we’ve talked about uranium and the EPA settlement with the Navajo Nation. Where do we stand on that? Because I believe there was a contract 1.5 years ago of $220 million to a consortium that started with a Navajo Nation company and you were involved, Perma-Fix was involved. Where do we stand on that, please?
Mark Duff: I probably should have talked about that in the notes, Howard, because that’s a really important project for us. We did win a contract with the Abandoned Uranium Mine program through the EPA with — or Prime, as you said, is a local Navajo firm and a few other teaming partners as well. We mobilized into the Nevajo Nation into Cove, Arizona for the actual first Abandoned Uranium Mine remediation project through that very large program which is funded well over $1 billion right now. And we are in the process of finishing cleaning up that site. It’s a quick turn. I want to say a couple of months total. So we’ve been out there for a few weeks. I was out there last week with our executive vice president and our technical folks to tour.
I met with EPA and they’re very excited about how our soil-sorting technology is working. It’s cleaning up to very, very low levels of radioactivity and meeting expectations. And we’re anticipating, though not final but that project will continue to expand and the system we have in place out there middle of nowhere in Arizona will continue to operate beyond that project and move right into the next one. And we’re working with EPA to make that happen right now. So that project is going very well. It generates about $1 million a month or portion and the project itself is very well operated and with our teaming partners and very efficient. So EPA was quite supportive and pleased with the project to date and more to come on that as it continues to expand.
Howard Brous: Let me address the ITDC contract. There’s currently an appeal that’s existing. When does that period end? That’s the first question. And the second part of it is, assuming that BWXT has lost the contract, is it a fair comment, there’s a high likelihood that Atkins gets that award after the appeal period is over? What are your thoughts?
Mark Duff: The appeal period — I should say, we’re in an appeal period right now. I’m not sure the exact date, Howard. It was a 60-day period and my recollection was that would take us to like end of next week kind of thing; so in that range. And then DOE — we’ll have — we’ll move forward with their decision process. And as the judge said in the ruling, there’s only — there’s basically 2 options to either award — to make an award to the other team — and again, there’s only 2 teams or move forward with a new procurement. I can’t speculate on the probability of any direction they might go. It’s really difficult to understand. It’s been very, very quiet while they’re waiting for this appeal period to be over. But it is the third time — it would be the third time if they go through a procurement process.
There is some urgency associated with what’s happening at the site over the next couple of years with the law coming online and the tank program really changing. So we’d like to be optimistic about it but we really have no intel and really no understanding of what DOE is going to do at this point. Hopefully, we’ll learn something in the September timeframe.
Howard Brous: Let me get to the last, probably the most important question. So the smelters worked for the vitrification plant up to 2,100 degrees and that then leads to the likelihood of that plant starting in end of Q3 2024. Is that a correct comment based on what you’re hearing from the Hanford people?
Mark Duff: Generally, yes, Howard. The melter has — the first smelter — two melters, I understand and they’re quite complex piece of equipment. The first one did operate as planned from what we’ve read and that they’re moving forward with the other testing of the other systems associated with that which obviously is a very large complicated facility. But they’re making good progress. DOE continues to report in their press releases as they click over milestones that they’re on track for the second half of ’24, basically a year away and the things are going well. So there’s an increasing optimism about their schedule about the facility coming online. Getting that melter operational was a big deal and a big accomplishment by Bechtel and the other contractors along with DOE.
So obviously, we’re really big fans of that Vit Plant and hope to be able to provide support through our new arrangement or agreement with them that’s reflected in the ROD. And right now, we would expect to be hot testing with real waste at the end of ’24.
Howard Brous: Based on a full operational, can you confirm again that on that basis that for 2025, we still could be looking at just in this one area? Roughly $3 in earnings?
Mark Duff: I really I can’t address the earnings at this point. There’s a lot of variables in this calculation. It seems like a reasonable estimate. But it depends on the mix of waste that we receive, the quantities of each type and that type of thing. I would expect that their estimate is 8,300 cubic meters a year and that would assume full capacity, both melters running full blast for a 12-month period which would likely take a year or two to get to that kind of level. But I do expect this to ramp up to a point where we could definitely tune those numbers and get an understanding of how much capital we have to invest in it which we anticipate to be quite limited at this point. But it seems like a reasonable estimate overall, Howard.
