Lightbridge Corporation

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the LightBridge Corporation Business Update and Second Quarter 2021 Conference Call. Please note that today's call is being recorded. It is now a pleasure to introduce Matthew Abinanti, Director of Investor Relations for LightBridge Corporation.

Thank you, Brian, and thanks to all of you for joining us today. The company's earnings press release was distributed before the market opened earlier today. 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 Gray, Chief Executive Officer, along with Larry Goldman, Chief Financial Officer, Andrei Mushakov, 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 fact 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 the call over to our first speaker, Seth Gray, Chief Executive Officer of Lightbridge. Hello, Seth.

Well, hello, and thank you, Matt. And thank you all for joining us to discuss Lightbridge's second quarter 2021 results. I hope you and your families are well and safe. Earlier today, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC, stated in a report that the window is rapidly closing to avoid catastrophic climate change that would transform life as we know it. For those new to Lightbridge's story, and as a reminder to those who've been following Lightbridge, I'd like to start with our mission, which is to pioneer advanced nuclear fuel technologies to impact the world's climate and energy problems soon enough to make a difference. Lightbridge Fuel, our groundbreaking next generation nuclear fuel technology, will make both existing and new reactors safer, more proliferation resistant, and more economically viable. Our focus has been on developing new metallic fuel rods, something that hasn't been attempted in the nuclear power industry for the existing reactor technology. Light-rich fuel will be even safer and produce more energy than current nuclear fuels. Both existing reactors and the future small modular reactors, or SMRs, can benefit by using light-bridge fuel, enabling a plant to produce added incremental electricity at a lower cost than any other means of generating base load electric power. We are designing light-bridge fuel to enable these SMRs to more efficiently load follow, ramping up and down in power as renewables are available, replacing fossil fuel plants. In addition, we expect this technology to reduce the cost of generating electricity from an SMR, which strengthens the business case for deploying large numbers of SMRs to deliver reliable power and meet the IPCC's climate goals. Our development steps and anticipated safety and economic benefits are also applicable to the existing large light water reactors. Our innovative fuel design is backed by a global patent portfolio. The U.S. Department of Energy and its national laboratories have validated Lightbridge Fuel with two funding awards. DOE considers awards larger than $500,000 in cases with, quote, a clear need and involving a truly exceptional technology, unquote. Our gain voucher for work at Idaho National Laboratory meets that criteria. with an award in excess of $500,000 in DOE funding contributions. Turning to our current fuel development efforts, last month we executed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement, or CRADA, with the Battelle Memorial Institute, the operating contractor of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, PNNL, in collaboration with the DOE. This agreement kicks off our work at PNNL, which advances a critical stage in the manufacturing process of light-rich fuel by demonstrating a casting process using depleted uranium zirconium material. The total project value of the CRADA is approximately $663,000, with three quarters of this amount funded by DOE for the scope performed by PNNL. Earlier in the second quarter, we announced the successful demonstration of our proprietary manufacturing process for three-lobe, six-foot rods using surrogate materials. These surrogate rods were manufactured through our co-extrusion process at a length designed for small modular reactors. These activities are part of our ongoing efforts to qualify our manufacturing process and develop specifications for our metallic fuel rod design that will ultimately be used for design and manufacturing fuel rods for loop irradiation testing, as well as commercial length rods for operation in a commercial reactor. We are pleased with our ongoing efforts at Idaho National Laboratory, or INL, performing under our funding voucher from the Department of Energy's GAIN program. We are designing an experiment for testing our fuel samples in the Advanced Test Reactor at INL. We anticipate our work under this voucher will be completed later this year. Last week, we announced the appointment of Jesse Funches as an independent director to our board of directors, who will serve as chair of the audit committee. Jesse brings a unique skill set, combining years of successful financial management with a comprehensive knowledge of nuclear regulatory policies and processes. He also has extensive experience in working with Congress and the Office of Management and Budget and in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Jesse's wealth of knowledge and strong leadership will be instrumental in guiding our fuel development initiatives and ensure we meet or exceed regulatory and governmental requirements. Since our last call, there has been a flurry of activity within the company as well as the industry which has led to a greater awareness and attention for Lightbridge. In June, Lightbridge was added to the Russell Microcap Index. We are proud to be one of the few publicly traded nuclear companies and to be included in the index, which will help us continue to broaden our investor base. Investors are increasingly learning that advanced nuclear technology is necessary for U.S. companies to compete globally and to meet IPCC climate goals. In July, I presented at Clean Equity Monaco, this time virtually. Clean Equity is an annual invitation-only event co-hosted by Prince Albert's Foundation and Innovator Capital of London, featuring some of the world's most innovative, sustainable technology companies. The audience included selected sovereign, corporate, family, and professional investors, policy makers, and end users. Video of my presentation... is available on LifeBridge's Investor Relations page. I also look forward to presenting at the upcoming SNN Network Summer Virtual Event on August 19th. Tomorrow, Andrei Mushakov will speak at the American Nuclear Society's Utility Working Conference, speaking on a panel discussion on accident-tolerant fuels focused on the economic performance benefits associated with these fuels. and we'll discuss the improved safety and economic benefits of light-bridge fuel. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Andre, Executive VP for Nuclear Operations, who will review our near-term research and development opportunities. Andre?