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EnergySolutions Inc. has reported lower revenue and a loss for the first quarter of its 2012 fiscal year.

The Salt Lake City-based nuclear waste disposal company said revenue for the quarter was $490.7 million, down from $522.2 million during the same period in its prior fiscal year.

The decline in revenue was due in part to the earlier completion of several of its projects and decreased stimulus funding received during the quarter for projects such as the Atlas mill tailings clean-up in Moab, the company said.

For its first quarter, EnergySolutions said it lost $669,000, or 1 cent per share, compared with last year's first quarter net income of $9.9 million, or 11 cents per share.

In a statement announcing first quarter financial results, President and CEO Val Christensen said management is optimistic about 2012 and realization of the company's five-year strategic growth plan.

He said the company is pleased with the progress of efforts to reduce operating, sales and administrative costs while continuing to pursue opportunities to increase disposal volumes at its Clive facility in Tooele County.

In a report issued last week, J.P. Morgan securities analyst Scott Levine said he believes EnergySolution's earnings will increase as the year wears on.

Levine said he believes that EnergySolution's business has recently stabilized and he expects the company's work cleaning up the Zion nuclear power plant site north of Chicago will be ramping up over time.

Still, Levine wrote that recent contract completions and the end of stimulus funding is weighing on EnergySolutions' federal government business and that the pace of recovery in its commercial operations remains uncertain.

EnergySolution's high debt balance remains a consideration as well, he wrote, although it appears manageable.

The company's shares, which are listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ES, closed Wednesday at $3.33, down 82 cents or 20 percent for the day.