Industry Accomplishment

Department of Energy and Purdue partner to improve nuclear reactor construction

Today the Department of Energy’s National Reactor Innovation Center announced a collaboration with Purdue University’s Applied Research Institute to demonstrate construction technologies that could significantly reduce the cost and risk of new nuclear reactors. NRIC, headquartered at the Idaho National Laboratory, will work with the Purdue Applied Research Institute under NRIC’s Advanced Construction Technology Initiative (ACTI). Electric Power Research Institute and the Nuclear Energy Institute are also contributing partners to this project. NEI will advise on quality assurance and regulatory alignment. EPRI will provide technical expertise in non-destructive evaluation, advanced welding, and digital twin validation.

Lightbridge targets up to 20% reactor output gain with high-capacity steam generators

Lightbridge Corporation’s experimental fuel has a design target of raising power output by as much as 20% at existing reactors that switch to high-capacity steam generators. The company’s testing and licensing work is intended to determine whether the fuel can meet that target.

Antares, Last Energy, and Radiant hit DOE authorization milestones

The month of October saw three of the original Reactor Pilot Program companies hit a handful of milestones as each pursues Department of Energy authorization for the operation of various reactor projects. Both Last Energy and Radiant earned documented safety analyses (DSAs) for their first reactors, and Antares earned its nuclear safety design agreement (NSDA) for its second reactor.
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Oklo to advance Groves 2 Forge as part of U.S. Department of Energy’s Nuclear Energy Launch Pad selection

Oklo Inc., an advanced nuclear technology company, today announced it would advance the Groves isotope production facility (Groves 2 Forge) as part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC) Nuclear Energy Launch Pad initiative. Through the initiative, Oklo’s Groves 2 Forge will build on the demonstration experience from Oklo’s Groves Isotope Test Reactor while including capabilities to produce, process, and purify critical isotopes.

News Release Deployable Energy selected to test its nuclear battery at DOME

The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Reactor Innovation Center selected Deployable Energy to test the company’s nuclear battery technology inside the Demonstration of Microreactor Experiments, or DOME, testbed at the Idaho National Laboratory in 2027.
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Lightbridge secures access to Idaho National Laboratory’s Advanced Test Reactor Loop Facility to irradiate Clad Lightbridge Fuel rodlets under prototypic commercial reactor conditions

Lightbridge Corporation (“Lightbridge” or the “Company”) (Nasdaq: LTBR), an advanced nuclear fuel technology company, today announced that it has entered into Project Task Statement (PTS) No. 2 under its Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC (BEA), the U.S. Department of Energy's operating contractor for Idaho National Laboratory (INL), securing access to the loop testing facility of INL's Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) for the irradiation of clad Lightbridge Fuel™ rodlets.

Raven-Flint wins DOE backing for U.S. uranium conversion plant

Raven-Flint was selected for the U.S. Department of Energy’s NRIC Nuclear Energy Launch Pad to advance a domestic uranium conversion project. The company is developing a conversion process that does not use elemental fluorine.

Radiant wins $750M contract from U.S. Army to delivery energy independence to U.S. military bases

Radiant, the company building the world’s only plug-in ready, transportable commercial nuclear microreactors, today announced that the U.S. Army, in partnership with the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), has executed a binding agreement totaling up to $750 million dollars to develop and deploy 15 Kaleidos nuclear microreactors through the Army’s Janus Program. Radiant’s award is one of the largest contracts ever issued by DIU across their portfolio, and the largest award within the Janus Program.
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Lightbridge Corporation (“Lightbridge” or the “Company”) (Nasdaq: LTBR), an advanced nuclear fuel technology company, today announced that it has been selected to participate in the Nuclear Energy Launch Pad INL, administered by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (“DOE”) National Reactor Innovation Center (“NRIC”) at Idaho National Laboratory (“INL”). Selection provides an accelerated pathway toward DOE authorization for Lightbridge to design, build, and operate a dedicated facility at INL to manufacture Lead Test Assemblies (“LTAs”) of Lightbridge Fuel — the Company’s proprietary metallic nuclear fuel — for testing in U.S. commercial power reactors. LTAs represent the final fuel qualification stage between reactor testing and commercial fuel sales. Lightbridge now has an accelerated pathway to establishing manufacturing capability for producing LTAs.

Standard Nuclear Announces Fuel Supply Agreement with Antares Nuclear, Inc.

Standard Nuclear (NYSE: STDN) ("Standard Nuclear" or the "Company"), a reactor-agnostic producer of TRISO nuclear fuel and the only U.S. company with industrial-scale TRISO fuel fabrication facilities, today announced the execution of a binding fuel supply agreement ("FSA") for supply of TRISO fuel with Antares Nuclear, Inc. ("Antares"), a nuclear fission energy company developing microreactors for defense and space applications.