Lightbridge Corporation

Thank you for standing by and welcome to the LightBridge Corporation business update and third quarter 2020 conference call. Please note that today's call is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce Matthew Abenante, Director of Investor Relations for LightBridge Corporation. Sir, you may begin.

Matthew Abenante Thank you, John, and thanks to all of you for joining us today. The company's earnings press release was distributed after the market closed yesterday and can be viewed on the investor relations page of the Lightbridge website at www.ltbridge.com. Joining us on the call today is Seth Grae, Chief Executive Officer, along with Larry Goldman, Chief Financial Officer, Sherry Holloway, Accounting Manager, Executive Vice President for Nuclear Operations, and Jim Fornoff, Vice President for Nuclear Program Management. I would like to remind our listeners that any statements on this call that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. Today's presentation includes forward-looking statements about the company's competitive position and product and service offerings. During today's call, words such as expect, Anticipate, Believe, and Intend will be used in our discussion of goals or events in the future. This presentation is based on current expectations and involves certain risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ significantly from such estimates. These and other risks are set forth in more detail in Lightbridge's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Lightbridge does not assume any obligation to update or revise any such forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new developments or otherwise. And with that, I would like to turn over the call to our first speaker, Seth Grae, Chief Executive Officer of LightBridge.

Hello, Seth. Hello, Matt, and thank you all for joining us. LightBridge continues to make progress on its fuel development initiatives, and we are pleased with the ongoing efforts at Idaho National Lab, or INL, performing under our funding voucher from the U.S. Department of Energy's Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear, or GAIN, program. As a brief reminder, we are designing an experiment for testing our fuel samples in the Advanced Test Reactor at INL. Receiving this GAIN voucher has served as a tremendous validation for us as it is the first government funding for our metallic fuel technology. In fact, when the DOE awards this kind of funding in an amount over $500,000, as in this case, it is formally considered by DOE as, quote, a case with a clear need and involving a truly exceptional technology or innovation, unquote. Lightbridge is well aligned with the support the U.S. government is providing to develop advanced nuclear technologies that can help the existing large reactors and new smaller plants. U.S. government support has grown in importance as the United States is amid a global race for advanced nuclear technology, particularly against China and Russia. This race itself can be characterized as two races, one strategic and the other relating to climate change. Strategically, the U.S., China, and Russia are each putting tremendous resources and priorities into competing internationally in nuclear power development. In fact, the GAIN program within DOE that we are benefiting from is certainly part of these resources and priorities. This is a strategic race for the United States because reactor deployments strengthen the strategic relationship between the buyer and seller countries. Reactor orders establish about a 100-year relationship from first signing the contract to decommissioning the last plant from the initial contract. Of course, it also means large numbers of jobs and revenue and commerce for the country that gets a sale. As we lose out, Thank you very much. while having the additional capacity to handle the world's energy demands while emitting less CO2 than is emitted today. This means that nuclear must be a growing part of the power generation mix which presents a business opportunity for U.S. companies versus opportunities for companies from other countries translating to more manufacturing jobs in the U.S. which is also an important bipartisan issue In fact, in our home state of Virginia, Governor Ralph Northam last week issued a proclamation relating to Nuclear Science Week, recognizing the nuclear power industry in Virginia. In his statement last month, the governor cited Virginia's role in nuclear innovation, referencing, quote, nuclear generation fuel technology, unquote. that makes the state a global leader in nuclear R&D and also recognize that, quote, nuclear energy will play a vital role in achieving Virginia's goal to be carbon-free by 2050, unquote. Turning to our strong patent portfolio, during the third quarter, we received a notification of patent grant from the Korean Intellectual Property Office, for a divisional patent application relating to a co-extrusion method of manufacturing light bridges for low helically twisted metallic fuel rods. There are currently 24 reactors in South Korea that provide one third of the country's electricity, making this an attractive potential market for our fuel. Patenting the technology that we develop helps assure that our shareholders will fully benefit from commercialization of our technology. And with that, I will turn the call over to Andrey Mushakov, Executive VP for Nuclear Operations, who will review our near-term research and development opportunities. Andrey. Thank you, Seth.