The Salt Lake City-based radioactive waste disposal company, whose name adorns the downtown arena that serves as the home of the Utah Jazz basketball team, is projecting it will earn 69 cents to 74 cents per share in its 2008 fiscal year.

It anticipates revenues for the year will fall somewhere between $1.8 billion and $1.9 billion.

"As we look forward, the nuclear services sector remains robust and we see significant opportunities for us to grow in each of our business segments," EnergySolutions' Chief Executive Steve Creamer said Tuesday morning in a conference call with securities analysts.

In fiscal year 2007 things were a little different.

The company, which went public in November, posted revenue of $1.1 billion and a loss of $8.9 million, or 79 cents per share for its 2007 fiscal year that ended Dec. 31. A year earlier the company recorded a profit of $26.9 million.

For its fourth quarter, EnergySolutions indicated that higher costs during the period outweighed the benefits of a surge in revenue from its recent acquisition of Reactor Sites Management Co. Ltd., a company that operates and manages nuclear reactor sites in the United Kingdom.

Revenue for the quarter that ended Dec. 31 was $427.9 million compared with $132.8 million for the same period in 2006, the company reported. The $4.8 million loss for the quarter compared with net income of $9.5 million for the same period in 2006.

Securities analysts who follow the company are as optimistic as Creamer when it comes to the company's future.

In a research note issued Tuesday, Charles Fishman, of Piper Jaffray Inc., said the company has positioned itself to capitalize on the "rebirth" of nuclear power "better than any other industry competitor."

Creamer agreed.

"Together with financial strength from reduced leverage following our initial public offering, and our wider access to capital that comes with a listing on the [New York Stock Exchange], we are positioned well for future organic and acquisition-based growth," he said.

Even the company's controversial plan to import 20,000 tons of nuclear waste from Italy would help financially. Some of that waste would be disposed of in the company's Tooele County landfill for low-level radioactive waste.

"Although the company has yet to receive approval and secure a contract to import . . . [the] waste for processing in Tennessee and disposal in Utah, we expect the company to continue to aggressively pursue this opportunity as it seeks approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission," Wedbush Morgan securities analysts Al Kaschalk and Pedja Jovanovic said in a note issued Tuesday. "A favorable announcement before [the fourth quarter of 2008] could add upside to 2008 guidance."

That company proposal, however, has drawn intense fire from politicians, environmental activists and media.

steve@sltrib.com