Pocatello firm, Premier Technology helps engineers safely handle toxic waste

To Premier Technology, a box is never just a box — it´s a life-saving device, especially when stuffed with radioactive material.

Joshua Duplechian / Idaho State Journal

Premier Technology, http://www.premiertechnology.cc founded in 1996, has patented a new, machined surface window for existing “glove boxes,” large metal structures with sealed windows and two holes for arm-length gloves. Engineers use them at almost every federal Energy Department site to handle radioactive or hazardous waste safely.

But sometimes the sealant around windows leaks small amounts of radioactivity.

Premier business development director Lyle Freeman said his company´s new machined surface window replaces the old rubber zipper-style windows with either welded or bolted smooth steel metal, which eliminates excess radiation and allows engineers to remain safe.

Quick installation is another advantage of the Premier windows, he added. When a zipper-style window becomes cracked or needs replacement, it takes about two weeks, compared to only about six hours for Premier´s windows, Premier President Mark Brown said.

Bechtel BWXT Idaho installed zipper-style windows at its Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory´s Pit 9 Project, where engineers are trying to remove buried radioactive waste.

And though the zipper-style windows still are relatively safe, the government´s Savannah River Technical Center in Georgia is the first in the nation to start replacing its old-style windows with Premier´s even safer style, Freeman said.

Brown said his company is in talks with the federal laboratory at Los Alamos, N.M., to install its windows there.

“My dream is to have our windows at every DOE site in the nation,” Brown said.

Premier first became a name brand in the glove box industry in 2002 when it received about a $13 million contract from the government´s Hanford site in Washington.

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170 E. Siphon Road

Pocatello, Idaho 83202

Ph 208-238-3036

Fax 208-238-8063

http://www.ptechnology.net/us.html

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The company was hired to manufacture large leaded glass window systems, glove boxes, embedded steel and general metal fabricated items for Hanford´s radioactive cleanup project.

At about the same time, the company became active with the American Glove Box Society. Freeman, in fact, is the trade organization´s immediate past president.

Its participation with the trade organization helped the company launch a research and development team, which initially created the new machined window and is currently creating a safer rubber glove for glove boxes.

The company has received millions of dollars in other federal subcontracts, including ones at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and some small projects in Idaho.

Brown would not disclose the exact amount of other contracts, citing proprietary concerns, and he did not disclose the private company´s earnings beyond saying Premier has received a steady stream of income.

“We lock our designs in cabinets and keep everything about the projects on a need-to-know basis,” he said. “The industry is huge, and is constantly evolving. I really am not sure whether at one moment, it´s a multimillion-dollar industry or a multibillion-dollar industry.”

In addition to glove boxes, which the company views as its best means of increasing market share, the company is manufacturing materials for an Australian pharmaceutical company and for food-processing facilities.

http://www.idahostatesman.com/Business/story.asp?ID=55132