Lightbridge CEO issues letter update to shareholders

Lightbridge issued a corporate update in a letter to shareholders from President and CEO Seth Grae. “I am pleased to present an overview of Lightbridge’s progress in 2023, a brief description of a standard framework for keeping track of progress on nuclear fuel development efforts that we are adopting going forward, and key upcoming fuel development milestones that we expect to accomplish over the next 2-3 years…. Key Milestones and Achievements in 2023; Strengthening our Leadership Team… Agreement with Centrus Energy… Engineering Study for CANDU Reactors… Collaborative Research and Development Initiatives… Enhanced Plutonium Disposition. Technology Readiness Level Framework; Lightbridge is adopting the Technology Readiness Level system to illustrate the progress of its fuel development efforts… Currently, Lightbridge Fuel is positioned at TRL 4-5, indicating a significant phase in our development process. At this stage, Lightbridge Fuel has moved beyond theoretical research and entered into the realm of validation in a laboratory environment and initiation of validation in representative operating conditions…. Key Upcoming Fuel Development Milestones Anticipated over the Next 2-3 Years: Applying the TRL framework to the upcoming fuel development milestones illustrates how each goal aligns with different TRL levels: Expand our fuel development team to build in-house modeling and simulation capabilities in neutronics, thermal-hydraulics, fuel performance, and transient analyses; Continue to execute our ongoing work at Idaho National Laboratory leading to casting and extrusion of unclad fuel material samples using enriched uranium and their subsequent insertion for irradiation testing in the Advanced Test Reactor; Complete the Engineering Study for the use of Lightbridge Fuel in CANDU reactors in collaboration with RATEN ICN; Complete the FEED study for an LPFFF in collaboration with Centrus Energy; and Commence manufacturing efforts relating to co-extrusion of cladded rodlets for loop irradiation testing. Conclusion: We are focused on further advancing our technologies, expanding our market presence, and continuing our collaborations with industry and academic partners. Our ongoing research and development efforts and strong intellectual property portfolio position us favorably in an industry set to expand dramatically throughout the world.”