This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.
spk01: Good morning and welcome to New Scale Power's first quarter 2022 business update conference call. Today's call is being recorded. All participants are in a listen-only mode. After management's prepared remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, again press the star one. A replay of today's conference call will be available at approximately 1 p.m. Eastern time today, accessible on NuScale's website at ir.nuscalepower.com. The web replay will be available for 30 days following the earnings call. A telephone replay will also be available for seven days through a registration link, also accessible on NuScale's website. At this time, for opening remarks, I would like to turn the call over to Diane Hughes, Vice President, Marketing and Communications. Please go ahead, Ms. Hughes.
spk00: Thanks, Rod. Welcome to NuScale's 2022 First Quarter Business Update Conference Call. With us today are President and Chief Executive Officer John Hopkins and Chief Financial Officer Chris Colbert. Because the merger with Spring Valley closed on May 2nd, NuScale was not a publicly traded company during the first quarter and did not file a quarterly report on Form 10-Q. However, NuScale's unaudited first quarter financials were filed on a current report on Form 8K on May 16 and are included in the registration statement on SEC Form S1 that was filed on May 13. To keep you all informed as shareholders of our newly public company, we are hosting this business update call in which we'll discuss business developments at NuScale during the first quarter and pro forma financial performance. Starting with NuScale's second quarter results, we'll file a 10-Q and report results in the standard manner. We issued the business update press release earlier today, which can be found in the investor relations section of our website at ir.nuscalepower.com. We will reference the update while conducting today's call. Before getting started, I'd like to refer you to our Safe Harbor disclaimer regarding forward-looking statements, which is included in the press release. During today's call, we'll be making forward-looking statements which reflect our current views of existing trends and information. There's an inherent risk that actual results and experience could differ materially. You can find a discussion of our risk factors, which could potentially contribute to such differences from our form S-1, which NuScale filed with the SEC. Also during this call, we may discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of these amounts to the comparable GAAP measures are included in our business update release. I'll now turn the call over to John Hopkins, NuScale President and Chief Executive Officer. John?
spk04: Thank you, Diane, and good morning, everyone. I and the entire NuScale team are really excited to be here today reporting to you as a public company. I'll provide an overview of our more notable recent business developments and lay out our near-term strategic objectives. Then my colleague, Chris Colbert, NuScale CFO, will provide a detailed update on our capital structure and financial position as well as reaffirm our outlook. Let me start by explaining our enthusiasm about the future of nuclear power and our role in it. The energy industry is entering what many are calling a new nuclear renaissance, as people realize that nuclear is the only solution for cost-effective, 100% carbon-free baseload power. This pressing need for more clean energy and energy security and resiliency became more urgent in recent months with the impact of geopolitical events. These tailwinds are clearly reflected in the business update I'll walk you through shortly. Each company around the world has a unique path towards decarbonization based on a country's energy resources and infrastructure. It is important that the policies of multilateral institutions recognize nuclear zero carbon reliable energy benefits. To name just a few of the recent headlines from around the world that support this notion, a recent study published by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe concluded that energy, nuclear energy, not only has the lowest overall greenhouse gas emissions, but also has the cleanest life cycle profile of all sources of electricity production. On the other side of the globe, the U.S.-Japan Competitive and Resilience Partnership recently launched the Clean Energy and Energy Security Initiative to accelerate innovation and marketization of clean energy technologies, including nuclear power. In addition, the government of Indonesia has joined this partnership with Japan and the U.S. in utilizing tools to increase interest in renewable investment, including SMR nuclear energy. Elsewhere in Asia, the U.S.-South Korea Leaders' Joint Statement knows that the leaders of both countries recognize the importance of nuclear energy and commit to greater collaboration, accelerating development, and global deployment of advanced reactors and SMRs. To that end, the Republic of Korea joined the U.S.-led Foundational Infrastructure for Responsible Use of Small Module Reactor Technology, or FIRST, program. Although NuScale is newly public, remember, we are no by any means just a new company. It follows that we are uniquely positioned to win in this nuclear renaissance. NuScale was founded in 2007, and our transformational small-module reactor reflects decades of investment and development through the expertise of scientists and technologists who have dedicated their careers to this endeavor. We've built a strong competitive position when customer mandates infirmly establish themselves as a first mover in a large global and largely untapped market. We did this through a deliberate, meticulous, and disciplined approach. Now let's take a moment to consider where we are today. NuScale technology is the first and only SMR to receive approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, giving us a significant competitive advantage. We have a robust and growing customer development pipeline. This includes 18 signed and active MOUs or agreements in 10 countries. Our Cornerstone agreement is a project with a major regional utility customer here in the United States. For that customer, the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems, or UAMPS, field work and licensing is currently underway, and we expect their first SMR plant to go live by 2029. But that's not all. We have an early works agreement in place with KGHM in Poland. We're making progress in other markets and moving from memorandum of understanding to substantive contracts. We have an extensive and diverse supply chain and substantial global fabrication capacity that we can access today. Importantly, we have an attractive high-margin business model that we believe can monetize our intellectual property through SMR sales and technology licensing fees, while driving reoccurring revenues through critical operations and maintenance services over the life cycle of a plant. We're off to a good start as the first publicly traded SMR technology provider and are eager to build on its momentum. Despite heightened volatility across global capital markets, we executed a successful combination with Spring Valley Acquisition Corporation and brought $341 million of fresh capital into our coffers. Redemption Performance that is, the historic Spring Valley shareholders had a right to redeem their stock before the merger closed, was encouraging in light of the current market environment. In a period in which many high-quality deals were seeing redemption rates well over 90%, Spring Valley redemptions were only 37.5%. The assets in trust plus our upsized pipe yield us significant capital to fund our growth plan over long term. Turning now to the remainder of this year, We're focused on five key milestones. First, we intend to secure our next committed customer, similar to UAMPS by year end. Second, we intend to issue long lead material specifications for the reactor pressure vessel. Third, we intend to complete the reactor building design. Fourth, we intend to submit a standard design approval application to the NRC for the Voyager 6 six-module power plant that UAMPS plans to deploy. And fifth, We intend to complete our standard plan design, or SBD for short. Now let me cover the new news of the business now that we're midway through the second quarter. I'll comment on developments in customers, partnerships, technology, and regulation. First, let's look at customers. We have a very successful building out, we're very successful in building out a pipeline beyond our anchor customer UAMs in the U.S., and now have four active relationships around the world. This reflects our effort to transition customers from MOUs to substantive contracts. In Romania, we are encouraged to develop efforts with Nucleo-Electric SA, known as SNN. We signed a multi-party MOU with them and the owner of their preferred site for a NuScale Voyager 6 plant in Docești, Romania. Our team traveled to the country in the first quarter to meet with the SNN and Romanian regulator, CNCAN, and a couple weeks ago, we returned to Romania to sign this MOU. We held a press conference with representatives from the Romanian government, the U.S. Departments of State, Energy, and Commerce, and discussed next steps for this project. We are developing a licensing basis document that will outline the codes and standards to which a NuScale plant will be licensed and constructed in Romania. In Poland, we signed a landmark early works agreement with KGHM, a leading copper and silver mining conglomerate and large industrial energy user. They will work to deploy a new-scale Voyager power plant in Poland as early as 2029. We are engaging with KGHM on several options for pre-licensing activities and other project planning assessment activities. During the first quarter, we provided familiarization training to the KGHM team. They will develop the initial preliminary safety analysis report chapters for licensing in Poland. Back in the U.S., we signed a memorandum of understanding with Dairyland Power Cooperative in Wisconsin to jointly evaluate the potential deployment of a new-scale SMR-based power plant. Dairyland is a power generation and transmission cooperative providing wholesale electricity for 24 distribution cooperatives and 17 municipal utilities. They supply power to more than half a million people in four states in the Upper Midwest. Meanwhile, our anchor customer UAMS also made substantial progress, successfully and safely completing its field investigation activities at the site. This is a major milestone for this project. This phase of field work involved detailed geotechnical surface and subsurface investigation to characterize the geological properties underlying the site. It also established a groundwater monitoring network to support protection of the eastern Snake River Plain Aquifer and commissioned an on-site meteorological monitoring station to collect site-specific atmospheric data. In parallel, the project has also progressed to the development of a combined license application, or COLA, We are currently analyzing data collected from comprehensive site investigations in a two-year monitoring process, which will be presented in the COLA to address key safety and environmental considerations. The COLA will also provide additional project-specific facility design information, which will support the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's safety and environmental reviews, as well as public consultations. Let's discuss partnerships, which are critical to our commercialization strategy. Just after the close of the first quarter, we announced deals with Nucor, America's largest steel producer, and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, or J-BEC. Both companies made investments in NuScale, Nucor directly, and J-BEC through the purchase of equity from Floor. The Nucor investment is especially interesting. Nucor was a late pipe investor in NuScale. In addition to fresh capital, we believe this relationship can expand the industrial market for us. Leanne Tapalinian, the president and CEO of Nucor, understands the importance of sustainability and safe power generation. He noted that they invested in NuScale because SMRs can ensure our nation has carbon-free baseload power. We see growing interest from industrial customers seeking to use our SMRs for carbon-free process heat in addition to generating electricity. The JPEG investment is important because it builds on our presence in Japan. We already have strategic investments from JGC Holdings Corporation and IHI Corporation. And despite the after effects of Fukushima, Japan is a promising market for nuclear power due to their need for energy security and high dependence on imported fuels. But it's also rooted in understanding the safety of our SMR technology. In fact, Fukushima elevated safety to the forefront for regulators and the Japanese people. Safety is an attribute in which our SMR technology is unrivaled. J-BEC noted that the government of Japan is promoting R&D and SMR technology. In addition, U.S.-Japan Climate Partnership and a new Competitiveness and Resilience Partnership recognize advanced needs of power as one of the fields of cooperation between our two countries. I just recently returned from a trip to Japan in Korea. And while in Japan, our strategic investors made clear their interest in supporting deployment of new scale plants. Similar to Japan, Korea is renewing its commitment to nuclear energy. One of our early strategic investors, Doosan, returned to make an additional investment in 2021. Doosan knows our sector. They are one of the world's leaders in nuclear equipment manufacturing. They are one of the key partners in our ecosystem. We welcome this further strengthening of our relationship as we work towards commercial deployment of Voyager SMR power plants. While in Korea, we signed another memorandum of understanding with Doosan Inertability that paves the way for full-scale equipment manufacturing of new-scale SMRs by the later half of 2023. We also signed an MOU with our strategic investors Doosan GS Energy, and Samsung C&T. The Samsung relationship in particular demonstrates the growing importance of the Korean market. We also met with the CEO of Korea Ex-Im Bank, Bang Ki, to discuss financial support for new-scale plants on a global basis, including potentially for our SMR demonstration project in Idaho. This high-level activity is just a start, in our opinion. We expect to see more activity in North Asia in the quarters ahead. Turning now to our SMR technology, we remain in the advanced stages of our commercialization process to continue to make significant progress here today. This process finalizes the standard plant design information needed for construction and manufacture of new scale supplied equipment. In general, we are far along in technology and production process development. We are ordering long lead equipment now. which we believe is a significant competitive advantage. The list of technology development highlights year-to-date is long. In particular, Doosan completed its dimensional inspection non-destructive examination and anti-current testing for the steam generator helical coil tube. Also, the steam generator flow-induced vibration test vessel was delivered to the testing laboratory. We initiated FXM-19 forging trials with both domestic, international, forging sources. The decay heat removal characterization testing campaign was completed at our own NuScale hydraulic test facility known as NIST, which is located in Corvallis, Oregon. We are on track to complete all NIST testing by year end. Paragon Energy Solutions completed the first hardware build of the safety display and indication system prototype for our NuScale control room. The 60% design review for the reactor building crane was completed in January, and physical testing was completed this March. This testing demonstrates the crane's ability to perform post-control needed for precise module placement during refueling operations for the new scale power modules. And finally, standard plant design progressed. Over 50 SPD deliverables reviewed and accepted. Now let's wrap up with the latest regulatory developments. In addition to the UAM's co-work I mentioned earlier, we're busy with licensing activities with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. I'm pleased to share that the NRC has approved the building design and analysis licensing topic report in line with our expected timeframe. Meanwhile, three other topic reports were accepted for NRC review, including a rod ejection accident methodology licensing topic report revision, Inferamitone fuel applicability topical report supplement, as well as the critical heat flux topical report supplement. With all that being said, I'd like to now turn it over to Chris Colbert, our CFO, to cover financial results.
spk06: Chris?
spk05: Thanks, John, and good morning, everyone. The main topics I'll discuss today are, one, an overview of our first quarter financial performance, two, an update on our capital structure and financial position post-merger, And three, our outlook for the balance of 2022. Because you can read the details in our release, we'll just focus on the primary drivers of performance. All the figures I referred to will be for the first quarter of 2022, unless I note otherwise. It is important to remember that we have not generated material revenue to date. As such, our focus has been on effectively managing the cost side of the equation with an asset-light model. Operating expenses grew versus last year as we built our team across all functions. R&D expenses increased due to higher professional fees associated with the standard plant design work and compensation costs as a result of increased headcount as we expand our licensing department. We spent more on sales and marketing as we built our sales team and incurred travel expenses as that team worked to secure contracts around the world. General and administrative expense grew as we built the infrastructure to be a public company and incurred professional fees related to going public. The Department of Energy cost share increase reflects highly qualifying costs this year versus last. Consistent with our asset light model, capital expenditures were minimal and predominantly associated with software and computer hardware to support our research and development. Looking ahead, we believe the merger and pipe transaction have sufficiently funded us for the next several years of business development. The deal yielded us $341 million from the assets and trust in pipe, net of transaction expenses. I should highlight here that the only major change to our December 2021 financial projections is an increase in the pipe from $181 million to $235 million. The total merger proceeds of $341 million exceed the $200 million cash need forecasted through 2024 in those same projections. Otherwise, as we look ahead, the projections we gave when we first announced the merger with Spring Valley are still our operative assumptions. Those projections represent a meaningful ongoing build of our team and infrastructure as we progress toward commercialization. Let me turn the call back to John to conclude.
spk04: John? Thanks, Chris. Before we go to Q&A, I want to leave you with a few observations to reinforce why I'm so confident in our future. First, NuScale is developing the next generation of nuclear power technology that is safer, more versatile, and more cost-efficient than ever before. We are building something that far exceeds the already high standards of our currently operating plants, which uses decades-old technologies. Second, we see demand building all over the world with no let up in sight. We are ready to capitalize on those opportunities with our industry leading technology and value driven business model. And finally, we are relentlessly focusing on executing on our five near term goals, including securing additional committed customers, issuing long lead material specifications, completing our standard plan designs, and advancing our standard plan approval application with the NRC. This is a very exciting time for NuScale. Our long-term vision is clear, our goals are achievable, and we have a committed and diverse stable of investors and strategic partners who believe in our company. So with that, we'll turn over to questions. Operator, we're ready to begin the question and answer portion of the call, please.
spk01: At this time, I would like to remind everyone, in order to ask a question, press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. Your first question comes from the line of Mark Bianchi from Cowan. Your line is open.
spk03: Hey, how's it going, guys? On these three customer prospects here, Beyond, UAMPS, Nuclear, Electrica, KGHM, and Dairyland, they're all sort of 2029, 2030 opportunities for COD, I think. And I believe they're all six-packs. but maybe you could talk about the opportunity for MPMs with each of those, the timelines, and if there's follow-on opportunity beyond an initial order of six or whatever it is.
spk04: Yeah, Mark, thanks for the question. As you know, NuScale is going to build modules in a factory, and these are pretty much fundable assets that can be shipped anywhere. With our current supply capacity, we have the ability to deliver modules by 2027 as it stands. Now, that being said, a lot of this is predicated on the owner's needs. An example of UAMPs, they don't need the energy until 2029. As an example of Romania, when we first entered discussions with them over two years ago when they initiated their due diligence process, they were talking COD dates of 2032, 2035. However, with the events, unfortunately, that have occurred in Ukraine, we're seeing Central and Eastern Europe from an energy perspective security as well as climate disruption, moving their timelines up aggressively. So a lot of this is again predicated on the needs of the customer. The other thing I'd like to say was having gone to the rigor of the NRC, we originally proposed our design certification application for a 12-module plan at 50 megawatts, but over a period of time of testing and modeling and spending over $500 million, We quickly ascertained that the NuScale module can, in fact, achieve with very limited engineering design. It's basically the same module. But through that testing, we were able to ascertain that we could deliver up to 77 megawatts electric, which opened the aperture significantly for us. We can offer a four-module plant, a six, an eight, up to 12 modules. And at 12 modules, you're approaching a gigawatt-sized reactor. So a lot of this is we're seeing a lot of interest around the world. Predominantly, again, we're seeing, you know, even in this country, a period of time where a lot of coal-powered facilities and fossil fuel plants will be coming offline this decade, and they're looking for 100% baseload energy and clean energy. We have the ability to work in complement with renewables. We believe they're our friend. They're not a competitor. So we're greatly... A little long-winded, Mark, but we see a lot of opportunities here with our opportunity to offer customers what they need.
spk03: OK, thanks for that. I guess one question that comes up is sort of the appetite among U.S. publicly traded utilities for new nuclear. And I think there's a general aversion from investors for that. But I'm just curious what your level of engagement is with publicly traded utilities. I believe some of them actually have SMRs in their IRP in the 2030s.
spk04: Yeah, I'll let Chris take that one. He's been out beating the bushes and in discussions with a lot of these utilities. Chris?
spk05: Yeah, so, I mean, your observations are right on, Mark. You know, the first customers we have are from the public power sector, so that's your UAMs, your Dairyland Cooperative. But we have seen the investor-owned utilities, the publicly traded companies, starting to put, you know, SMRs and advanced reactors into their integrated resource plans which really for them are the first step to getting what I call a social contract to build new nuclear. So we've seen that with Duke, we've seen it at Dominion, we've seen it at Civic Corp, and we're seeing it increasingly. So I think it's going to be not a question of if, but when for those folks, because they face the same dynamics that our customer UAMS is facing. and that they need to replace the baseload coal power that they've relied upon for, you know, decades with something that is equally reliable and affordable, you know, in their words, keeps the lights on and the beer cold. They have that same requirement, and, you know, I just think it's a matter of, like I said, not if, but when, and we're seeing the very beginning of those considerations. And we're involved, and we provide our information to those folks to inform their integrated resource plans So they really do have the best information to proceed with in their planning. So we're encouraged, but they're just a little bit behind what I would say is our first mover in the UAMPS project.
spk03: Okay, great. Thanks for that, Chris. And while you're on the line here, the cash balance within the projection you have, could you just give us a... some thoughts on how the cash balance evolves over the course of the year. And I'm not sure what we should be expecting from a DOE cost share contribution this year. If you could help out with that, that'd be great.
spk05: Yeah. So when we look at the overall picture for it, I think I mentioned that we raised $341 million and we had about $40 million in cash at the end of Q1. So You know, just safe to say that into the first, well, you know, when you pro forma for the result of the cash raise, we're about 380. And just to, you know, project out, we had projected that we would use about $200 million of cash between now and 2024 when we would go cash flow positive. So the good news is we have, you know, quite a bit of cash available to us. More than, frankly, we had, you know, planned back in, you know, our thought back in September. Driven by one, we increased the pipe contribution from $181 million to $235 million. And second, the performance on redemptions was at 37.5%, very positive for us. So we feel very comfortable in the cash position that we have. And our discussions with the Department of Energy and their contributions of cost share for the programs, that they'll continue to cost share on the program that they'll have going forward. Now, that said, you know, as we move from being work that's funded by Department of Energy to us commercializing and selling, the mix of expenses that are eligible for DOE cost share decreases over time, so that we'll basically have run through the DOE cost share by the end of 2024 timeframe. But, you know, to date, everything we've projected in terms of our overall cash flows, we don't report out separately the But, you know, overall, we're very comfortable with the cash position we have and meeting the projections that we had put forward back in December.
spk03: Okay. But just to clarify, the $200 million of cash needed through 2024, does that contemplate inflows from DOE cost share or would that net against that $200?
spk05: That includes contributions from DOE cost share as well. and the DOE provides funding on an annual basis, and their fundings are consistent with that forecast.
spk03: Great. Thanks so much. I'll turn it back.
spk01: Your next question comes from the line of Char Parisa from Guggenheim Partners. Your line is open.
spk02: Hey, guys. Good morning.
spk01: Morning. Morning.
spk02: So just, and thanks for having this call, just in your conversations with, you know, JVIC and Dosan and Korea, did they sort of bring up the prospects for competition from maybe indigenous designs at all? I mean, both these countries, be it Hitachi in Japan or Capco in Korea, have kind of their own designs of varying maturity. So just curious if that was kind of raised at all.
spk04: You know, this is John Hopkins. I just returned from both Japan and Korea, as I mentioned. And let me start with Korea. Korea had an indigenous SMR called SMART, but it looks like it may have some technological challenges, and they're also looking at perhaps eventually having another program called the ISMR. But I can say currently in our discussion with both government officials in industry in Korea, they're very keen on SMRs, particularly new scale, hence the SMRs, where we're getting direct investment from Samsung, GS Energy, Doosan, and other strategics. And as an example, and I mentioned in my conversation with the chairman of Korea XM, they would like to assist in the financing of projects' new skill globally. As it relates to Japan, we met with very senior representation from government officials, former Prime Minister Abe, We also met with the current minister of the Minister of Economic Trade and Industries. We have a program in Japan called MEXEP, which is a consortium where many is utilized in this consortium to help prove the safety qualifications and analysis to the Japanese people of the safety about a NuScale reactor. So to your question about other competition, it really didn't come up in any of my discussions. I do believe that gone through the rigor of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which many believe this is a gold standard, many within industry understand the rigor having done that. So that's a big competitive advantage, as I mentioned in my dialogue, that going through that NRC has opened the aperture for us significantly.
spk02: Right, and that's helpful. I mean, obviously the conversations we've had with some of the utilities and their current IRP's seem to be pointing to SMRs, but also looking at some other advanced nuclear. So that's helpful color, John. I appreciate that. And then just, I know as kind of energy policy begins to sort of heat up again in Congress, and obviously there's a lot of mixed data points on where we stand in the midterms and, you know, mansion, but is there anything in particular you're flagging to investors as specific to SMRs or any potential benefits beneficiaries there?
spk04: I do believe – let me go back to one thing as it relates to other competition within our country. I don't – Uscale doesn't want to be a monopoly. We do want to be a first mover, but we're very behind other competitive technologies because, you know, we're going to be confronted with having to compete with state-owned enterprises outside this country. And there's certainly a large enough market for other technologies. Within our own country, you know, we've been in discussions with labor, particularly North American building trades – With many of the power plants, particularly coal, coming offline within our country, many of these are remote communities. They're, let's say, 200 to 300 megawatts of power. They employ 200 people. And there's an existing infrastructure. Now, we may not apply or be applicable to all of these plants, but the ones that we are, we're working on methodologies to how to cross-train existing folks in those rural communities to where they can run a new scale plant. The labor North American building trade is a very important piece of that for us. And also the revenue streams generated. Many of these people in these rural communities, they don't want to have to relocate and be forced to move for jobs that are miles away from where they're currently at. So we see a real competitive advantage here. And as Chris mentioned, we're starting to see the larger scale utilities take notice of the fact that this is something they're going to have to address near-term versus longer-term.
spk02: That's a fair point. And then just lastly, and I'll pass it to someone else, is I just want to get a bit of a sense. Are you seeing any above-plan drags on cash at this point, just given the inflationary backdrop? I mean, obviously, it's pretty fairly widespread, including on the weight side. So how are you managing that, I guess?
spk04: I guess I'll let Chris answer this, but we've been asked about fuel supply and uranium. We use conventional fuel. I mean, this fuel, we've got 400 active plants around the world that uses, you know, we're less than 4% of rich. Our key supplier, Framitone, currently has stated fuel is not the issue. Now, are we seeing some escalation in commodities? Yes. But as we see right now, it's still manageable. In terms of cash drain, Chris, do you have anything to add?
spk05: Yeah, so it's important to note, you know, we have an asset-light model, not only in the fact that we have other people manufacturing our modules, but the customers, as they order them, are paying for, you know, the procurement of the pieces and the fabrication. So, you know, if it's seen, it's seen by the customer, and that certainly is a consideration for them, but it doesn't drag on new scale where, you know, we see it like everybody else. is you know and the fact that you know there's wage uh pressures and to the extent that we're in the road traveling um you know your travel and living expenses increase um proportionately but it hasn't been a drag to the extent that it's really impacting business and you know in that regard just to re-emphasize um we raised you know a very healthy amount of capital from the increased pipe size and the lower redemptions we received through the merger transaction. So we feel very comfortable where we are. But, you know, we do track it and we do need to be mindful of it because at the end of the day, you know, even though it's the customers paying for it, it still needs to be an affordable plant. But in that context, you know, everything they want to do is escalating. In some places, you know, if it's a natural gas plant, it's multiplied by four because gas has gone from $2 to $8 a million BTUs. Yeah. So it's, you know, everybody has sticker shock, but then it's always like, well, what do you do now? And it's like, well, everything else has gotten way more expensive.
spk02: Got it. That's helpful. I'll jump back in the queue. Thanks, guys.
spk01: Thank you. And this concludes the question and answer session. I would now like to turn the call over to management for any additional or closing remarks.
spk04: I'm sorry. Thanks, operator. Again, thanks to all of you for participating in our call today. As I stated, we're thrilled to have completed our merger with Spring Valley, and we're now a publicly traded company. With the infusion of new capital and a publicly accessible currency, we believe we're in a great position to develop our business, attract customers, attract the best engineering talent in the industry, and make a difference in how the world generates power. We appreciate your interest in NuScale, and thank you again for making time today. Before we conclude, I'd like to turn it back to Diane, who will discuss upcoming investor events at which we will present. Diane, if you would.
spk00: Thanks, John. We have a busy June planned with five investor conference appearances scheduled for this month. Please note attendance at these conferences is by invitation only for clients of each respective firm. So interested investors, please contact your respective sales representative to register and schedule one-on-one meetings with us. So for the month of June, we are slated to appear at the Virtual Co and Sustainability and Energy Transition Conference on June 7, followed by CEPL Cross-Sector Insight Conference, which is in person in Boston on June 8. Then we plan to attend the UBS Utility and Energy Summit on June 14 in Kewa Island, South Carolina. Follow that, we expect to present at JPMorgan Energy Power and Renewables Conference in New York City on June 23rd. Finally, we are slated to participate at Cantor Fitzgerald ESG Technology Conference in Palo Alto, California on June 28th. At each of these events, the typical format is a formal presentation or fireside chat combined with one-on-one meetings. The formal presentations will be webcast to the public and can be accessed from the investor section of our website. Look for a press announcement in the coming days to share more specifics around each of these investor conference appearances. With that, we will conclude today's call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.
Disclaimer