Annual report pursuant to Section 13 and 15(d)

Description of Business and Basis of Presentation

v3.21.1
Description of Business and Basis of Presentation
 12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2020
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]  
Description of Business and Basis of Presentation

NOTE 1

DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS AND BASIS OF PRESENTATION

 

Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Inc. (the Company, which may be referred to as we, us, or our), an environmental and technology know-how company, is a Delaware corporation, engaged through its subsidiaries, in three reportable segments:

 

TREATMENT SEGMENT, which includes:

 

  - nuclear, low-level radioactive, mixed waste (containing both hazardous and low-level radioactive constituents), hazardous and non-hazardous waste treatment, processing and disposal services primarily through four uniquely licensed and permitted treatment and storage facilities; and
  - R&D activities to identify, develop and implement innovative waste processing techniques for problematic waste streams.

 

In 2020, we expanded our low-level radioactive waste processing and treatment capability within our Treatment Segment through the addition of our Oak Ridge Environmental Waste Operations Center (“EWOC”) facility. The EWOC facility serves primarily as a multi-disciplinary equipment and component processing center for large component, size/volume reduction, sort/segregation, waste transload, and system operability testing. The ultimate objective will be receipt, preparation, packaging, and transportation of low-level radioactive waste to final disposal facilities (landfills, approved radiological waste repositories). Operations at the facility have been limited to date as we continue to complete transition of the site. No revenue was generated at EWOC in 2020.

 

SERVICES SEGMENT, which includes:

 

  - Technical services, which include:

 

  ○ professional radiological measurement and site survey of large government and commercial installations using advanced methods, technology and engineering;
  ○ integrated Occupational Safety and Health services including IH assessments; hazardous materials surveys, e.g., exposure monitoring; lead and asbestos management/abatement oversight; indoor air quality evaluations; health risk and exposure assessments; health & safety plan/program development, compliance auditing and training services; and OSHA citation assistance;
  ○ global technical services providing consulting, engineering, project management, waste management, environmental, and decontamination and decommissioning field, technical, and management personnel and services to commercial and government customers; and
  ○ on-site waste management services to commercial and governmental customers.

 

  - Nuclear services, which include:

 

  ○ technology-based services including engineering, D&D, specialty services and construction, logistics, transportation, processing and disposal;
  ○ remediation of nuclear licensed and federal facilities and the remediation cleanup of nuclear legacy sites. Such services capability includes: project investigation; radiological engineering; partial and total plant D&D; facility decontamination, dismantling, demolition, and planning; site restoration; logistics; transportation; and emergency response; and

 

  - A company owned equipment calibration and maintenance laboratory that services, maintains, calibrates, and sources (i.e., rental) health physics, IH and customized NEOSH instrumentation.
  - A company owned gamma spectroscopy laboratory for the analysis of oil and gas industry solids and liquids.

 

MEDICAL SEGMENT, which includes: R&D of the Company’s medical isotope production technology by our majority-owned Polish subsidiary, Perma-Fix Medical (“PF Medical” or the “Medical Segment”). The Company’s Medical Segment has not generated any revenue as it remains in the R&D stage and has substantially reduced its R&D costs and activities due to the need for capital to fund these activities. All costs incurred by the Medical Segment are reflected within R&D in the accompanying consolidated financial statements.

 

The Company’s continuing operations consist of the operations of our subsidiaries/facilities as follow: Diversified Scientific Services, Inc. (“DSSI”), Perma-Fix of Florida, Inc. (“PFF”), Perma-Fix of Northwest Richland, Inc. (“PFNWR”), Safety & Ecology Corporation (“SEC”), Perma-Fix Environmental Services UK Limited (“PF UK Limited”), Perma-Fix of Canada, Inc. (“PF Canada”), PF Medical, East Tennessee Materials & Energy Corporation (“M&EC”) (facility closure completed in 2019), EWOC and Perma-Fix ERRG, a variable interest entity (“VIE”) for which we are the primary beneficiary (See “Note 19 - Variable Interest Entities (“VIE”) for a discussion of this VIE).

 

The Company’s discontinued operations (see Note 9) consist of operations of all our subsidiaries included in our Industrial Segment which encompasses subsidiaries divested in 2011 and prior and three previously closed locations.