RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2011

RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS

11. RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS

Payables to Thermo and other affiliates relate to normal purchase transactions and were $0.4 million and $0.7 million at December 31, 2011 and 2010, respectively.

Total purchases from Thermo and other affiliates were as follows (in thousands):

	Year Ended December 31,
	2011		2010		2009
Purchases of services, equipment, and other transactions	$	827	$	2,241	$	3,991

Transactions with Thermo

Thermo incurs certain expenses on behalf of the Company.  The table below summarizes the total expense for the periods indicated below (in thousands):

	Year Ended December 31,
	2011		2010		2009
General and administrative expenses	$	208	$	371	$	146
Non-cash expenses		319		168		337
Total	$	527	$	539	$	483

General and administrative expenses are related to expenses incurred by Thermo on the Company’s behalf which are charged to the Company.  Non-cash expenses are related to services provided by two executive officers of Thermo (who are also directors of the Company) who receive no cash compensation from the Company which are accounted for as a contribution to capital. The Thermo expense charges are based on actual amounts (with no mark-up) incurred or upon allocated employee time.

Thermo and its affiliates have also deposited $60.0 million into a contingent equity account to fulfill a condition precedent for borrowing under the Facility Agreement, purchased $20.0 million of the Company’s 5.0% Notes, purchased $11.4 million of the Company's 8.00% Notes, provided a $2.3 million short-term loan to the Company (which was subsequently converted into nonvoting common stock), and loaned $37.5 million to the Company to fund the debt service reserve account.

Transactions with Other Affiliates

During 2010, the Company purchased services and equipment on an arm’s length basis from a company whose non-executive chairman served as a member of the Company’s board of directors. Effective October 1, 2010, the individual was no longer a member of the Company’s board of directors.