Perma-Fix Successfully Treats and Ships First Hanford Tank Low Level Waste for Off-Site Disposal

Download as PDF

ATLANTA, GA -- (Marketwired) -- 12/21/17 -- Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Inc. (the "Company") (NASDAQ: PESI) today announced the Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) and its Office of River Protection (ORP) in Richland, WA recently coordinated shipment of approximately 3 gallons of treated, stabilized waste from the Company's subsidiary, Perma-Fix Northwest in Richland, WA, to the Waste Control Specialists LLC (WCS) Federal Waste Disposal Facility in Andrews, Texas. This effort, in part, completes the initial phase of a planned three phase DOE EM test bed initiative study.

The liquid waste, generated from a composite of several Hanford tank waste samples, was first pretreated at Hanford's 222-S Laboratory by DOE ORP Hanford site contractors. The composited liquid waste was filtered to remove solids, and then processed through an ion exchange media. The filtration and ion-exchange process remove the key radionuclides from the high-level waste resulting in residual liquids which are classified as low-level waste consistent with DOE's regulations for managing and disposing of these wastes.

Hanford site workers then packaged and transported the low-level liquid waste to the Perma-Fix Northwest facility, adjacent to the Hanford site in Richland, Washington. At Perma-Fix Northwest's permitted waste treatment facility, the low-level waste was treated, stabilized, and characterized to verify that it met regulatory disposal requirements for the WCS Federal Waste Facility, in Andrews TX. The innovative treatment program deployed at the Perma-Fix facility was developed to reduce complexity and costs for waste processing based on proven chemical principles to treat the waste to meet direct disposal criteria. The treated and stabilized low-level waste was packaged by Perma-Fix Northwest in a U.S. Department of Transportation-approved container, loaded on to a truck and was shipped to the WCS disposal facility. The waste was permanently disposed on December 19, 2017.

Mark Duff, Chief Executive Officer, stated, "We are excited to be a part of this important project, as it represents the first time EM has commercially treated, stabilized and shipped low level waste derived from Hanford tanks off site to a commercial facility for disposal. We commend EM, as this project is consistent with DOE's approach for investigating and evaluating new and innovative methods to manage its cleanup mission."

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 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, 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.

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 statement includes but not limited to: innovative treatment program developed to reduce complexity and waste processing. 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; and the "Risk Factors" discussed in, and the additional factors referred to under "Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" of, our 2016 Form 10-K and Forms 10-Q for quarters ended March 31, 2017, June 30, 2017 and September 30, 2017. 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.

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

Source: Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Inc.

Released December 21, 2017