Here are the most notable quotes from the Q1 CC past Friday. The next few weeks will be very interesting for sure. The stock could easily double or more if the right news hits. "As we have discussed previously, we submitted a new grant application to the U.S. Department of Energy in late January 2019 and we expect to hear back later this quarter. Our business is not dependent on these grants however if a DOE Grant is awarded, it will help accelerate our project timelines through the Enfission JV with Framatome. Just last month, the gateway for accelerated innovation in nuclear or GAIN initiative of the U.S. department of energy, office of nuclear energy announced that Framatome, Inc. had been awarded a nuclear energy voucher to help accelerate licensing of the Lightbridge Fuel design. This GAIN nuclear energy voucher further validates DOEs support for our technology which bodes well for future opportunities. DOE established gain to provide the nuclear community with technical, regulatory, and financial support to advance innovative nuclear technologies toward commercialization. While our focus is on developing fuel for large Western pressurized water reactors Andrey mentioned the 17x17 reactors, we're also seeing increased interest in Lightbridge Fuel for other types of reactors. We expect to have upcoming news on this subject." “We're working on potential new membership, overseas membership, I think very significant relating to the Nuclear Utility Fuel Advisory Board. And we're expecting what could be fairly near-term news relating to an additional kind of reactor and interest in our fuel and how we think that might also help with the Department of Energy.” “Well, as we mentioned, we are moving forward expeditiously with discussions to finalize this first utility agreement. It is going well. While I realize investors are anxious for the details, we are limited by strict confidentiality obligations as to what we can disclose right now. But what I can say is that we are following an established process that we expect will result in this lead test rod contract with a major U.S. nuclear utility this year. We expect this will be the most significant milestone our company has yet reached. And we will communicate the details as soon as we are able to do so under the confidentiality or operating under. Unfortunately, that is all we can say right now.” "In February, as discussed on our last call, I was grateful to have had the opportunity to meet with President Trump and discuss Lightbridge Fuel and how the U.S. nuclear power industry helps bring the strongest nonproliferation, safety and security standards to global markets. We also discussed the strength of nuclear suppliers from across the U.S. industry and how these strengths contribute to the domestic industrial base that is vital to American companies competing and winning overseas."
NuScale Power and Enfission Sign MOU to Explore Use of Next Generation Nuclear Fuel Technology Agreement could spur new improvements in core design, performance, and levelized electricity cost of NuScale’s small modular reactor May 15, 2019 08:00 ET | Source: Lightbridge Corporation https://www.globenewswire.com/news-...-Next-Generation-Nuclear-Fuel-Technology.html
Enfission Announces Addition of EDF Energy to its Nuclear Utility Fuel Advisory Board May 20, 2019 08:55 ET | Source: Lightbridge Corporation RESTON, Va., May 20, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Enfission LLC, a joint venture of Lightbridge Corporation (NASDAQ: LTBR) and Framatome, today announced that EDF Energy, a subsidiary of Électricité de France S.A. (EDF Group), the largest owner and operator of nuclear power plants around the world, has joined its Nuclear Fuel Advisory Board (NUFAB). Roger Float, Nuclear Fuel Strategy & Commercial Manager, will represent EDF Energy. EDF Energy is a diversified energy company in the United Kingdom, including a portfolio of nuclear power stations plus new reactors under construction. NUFAB was formed in 2011 comprising senior fuel managers from leading electric utilities that account for approximately 50% of the installed nuclear capacity in the U.S. With the addition of EDF Energy, NUFAB now includes leading commercial nuclear operators both in the U.S. and internationally. http://www.globenewswire.com/news-r...-its-Nuclear-Utility-Fuel-Advisory-Board.html
Enfission Appoints Eugene Dongweck, Jr. as Chief Financial Officer RESTON, Va., May 22, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Enfission LLC, a joint venture of Lightbridge Corporation (LTBR) and Framatome, today announced the appointment of Eugene Dongweck, Jr., CPA, as Chief Financial Officer. Seth Grae, Chief Executive Officer of Enfission, stated, “We are pleased to welcome Gene to the Enfission team as Chief Financial Officer. He brings over two decades of experience in the nuclear sector, having served in senior finance roles with Framatome. Moreover, he brings tremendous compliance and governmental experience, which will be valuable as we advance our activities with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Department of Energy and major utilities. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/enfission-appoints-eugene-dongweck-jr-132355582.html
Lightbridge Executive Chairman Ambassador Thomas Graham Selected to Co-Chair Newly Formed Nuclear Energy and National Security Coalition GlobeNewswire•May 23, 2019 RESTON, Va., May 23, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lightbridge Corporation (LTBR), a nuclear fuel technology development company, today announced that Ambassador Thomas Graham, Executive Chairman of Lightbridge Corporation, and Admiral Richard Mies, fourth Commander in Chief of the United States Strategic Command from 1998 to 2001, were selected to co-chair the Nuclear Energy and National Security Coalition (NENSC). NENSC was founded by the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center in order to increase awareness about nuclear energy as a cornerstone of national security. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/lightbridge-executive-chairman-ambassador-thomas-123000702.html
On May 23, 2019, Lightbridge Corporation (the “Company”) received notice from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) that the Company’s 2019 grant application to DOE was not approved. A copy of the notice is furnished as Exhibit 99.1 to this report. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1084554/000147793219003129/ltbr_ex991.htm The only good part is that Lightbridge is eligible to resubmit their application for future quarterly submittals. Hopefully they will get the grants after reapplication once they have signed the contract with a major electric company that will be using LTBR's metallic rods.
Lightbridge announces Framatome receipt of US Department of Energy GAIN voucher to support development of Lightbridge Fuel™ May 30, 2019 07:30 ET | Source: Lightbridge Corporation RESTON, Va., May 30, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lightbridge Corporation (NASDAQ: LTBR), a nuclear fuel technology development company, today announced that Framatome received a voucher from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) program to support development of Lightbridge Fuel™ in collaboration with Idaho National Laboratory (INL). This is Framatome’s third GAIN voucher and its first supporting the Lightbridge Fuel design conducted by Enfission LLC, the joint venture between Framatome and Lightbridge Corporation. “This voucher enables Framatome to apply focused attention on key licensing steps to commercialize Lightbridge Fuel,” said Robert Freeman, vice president, Contracts and Services, Fuel Commercial and Customer Center at Framatome. “We are enthusiastic about the transformative science and technology benefits of this metallic fuel’s unique composition and geometry for the nuclear energy industry.” Framatome’s collaboration with INL under this GAIN voucher will leverage the laboratory’s experience in fuel and material development, as well as its performance knowledge, to facilitate Framatome’s understanding of phenomena unique to uranium-zirconium metallic fuel. Over a period of 12 months, Framatome and INL will work under the voucher to generate Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and a Phenomena Identification Ranking Table (PIRT) based on the Lightbridge Fuel concept. Both the FMEA and PIRT are important steps in licensing an advanced fuel product in the U.S. and will be required inputs to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. For this work DOE will fund INL at a value of $477,000. Seth Grae, Chief Executive Officer of Enfission, stated, “We appreciate this support from DOE for Lightbridge Fuel, which is designed to increase power output, enhance economics and provide additional safety benefits for existing and future reactors worldwide. We look forward to working closely with Framatome, INL and DOE to further advance Lightbridge Fuel toward commercialization.” Framatome and Lightbridge launched the 50-50 joint venture company, Enfission, in January 2018 to develop, license and sell nuclear fuel assemblies based on Lightbridge-designed metallic fuel technology and other advanced nuclear fuel intellectual property. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-...-support-development-of-Lightbridge-Fuel.html
We will have to wait and see when they will actually achieve the "major near-term milestones". Hopefully sooner than later... Aug 7, 2019 Lightbridge Reports Financial Results for the Second Quarter of 2019 and Provides Business Update on Enfission and Other Developments http://ir.ltbridge.com/news-release...reports-financial-results-second-quarter-2019 Seth Grae, President & Chief Executive Officer of Lightbridge Corporation, commented, “We continue to work towards major near-term milestones, including production of commercial-length fuel rods with surrogate materials, as well as a contract with a major US nuclear utility for a Lead Test Rod program. While this commercial contract with a utility is taking longer than expected, we continue to advance the process and solidify our collaboration goals." “We are also gaining attention at the strategic level. In May, we announced that we entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with NuScale Power, which is developing the country’s first small modular reactor, to develop research and testing programs in order to explore the application of our nuclear fuel technology, which is well suited for NuScale’s natural circulation design. Our advanced fuel design is expected to increase core performance, extend core life, reduce refueling outages and offer reduced levelized cost of electricity. We look forward to finalizing a definitive agreement with NuScale Power and contributing to optimizing their advanced nuclear reactor design.”
Hi Dan, What was your take on the latest conf call? I found it to be a bit lacklustre and wish their CFO hadn’t mentioned a reverse stock split. Now that’s all everyone is going to hear and think about. The clock is ticking and we really need to hear some good news prior to Nov 4th Nasdaq deadline! Also, have you noticed their CFO has mentioned partnerships a few times now on different calls for raising capital or cost sharing agreements? What’s your take on that? I agree with you that, for this year, we need a contract from a utility for a lead test rod. My understanding was that this would have 4 zones (Titans of Nuclear Podcast Interview with Seth). They would evaluate these zones for the optimal mix for composition of the actual final lead test assemblies. It appears that near term milestones will likely be: 1) Demonstration of fabricating a full length rod with surrogate material (not using enriched Uranium). <2019 - next few months?> 2) Commercial Reactor contract - we need this to show that there is confidence in LTBR technology and a commercial utility is willing to take it on. Questions related to this are: a) how much will LTBR receive in cash funding and; b) is there enough info for us to start extrapolation on future valuations on a per reactor basis? <2019???> 3) Test reactor experiments.<2020??> 4) Commercial reactor test with a lead test rod. <2021??> 5) TREAT reactor testing under severe accident conditions, where they beat up the fuel under extreme conditions to to demonstrate LTBR fuel’s unique attributes (safer and more tolerant to extreme LOCA occurrences). <2023??>
Thanks for your post and very good summary. I did listen to the recent conference call as well. Unfortunately their is no transcript yet available. As you pointed out correctly the CFO did mention the option of a possible reverse split to comply with nasdaq rules. However the CEO clearly said later on that they expect to achieve one of the milestones and that they expect the stock price to move above $1. Overall the conference call gave me enough arguments to stay invested - and to buy more if it drops further. I am very optimistic that we will be trading at least 100% higher from current levels until the end of the year.
I agree and share your optimism. I’m very heavily invested and have been following this story since 2015 and believe that between demonstrating the fabrication of a full length rod and a Commercial Reactor Lead Test Rod Agreement, both before the end of the year, they will likely hit their $3.00 stock incentive target. Recall, that their bonus stock options were pending on either getting $5 million from DOE by June 30, 2019 or stock price being $3.00 or higher for 10 consecutive days before Dec 2019. They’ve missed the DOE part but still have the $3.00 portion available as it was either one of on hitting those milestone (see excerpt and link at the very bottom below) Also, here is a link to their transcripts. Seeking Alpha is decent but I would recommend you print or copy ASAP because they lock the free ones after a couple months and try to get you to subscribe to their membership service. On a side note, I was toying with idea of subscribing for a month to get all of their conf call transcripts from 2012 onwards for my files. Still undecided on this. Lightbridge Corporation (LTBR) CEO Seth Grae on Q2 2019 Results - Earnings Call Transcript $LTBR https://seekingalpha.com/article/4284384 LTBR Annual Report Pg 74 of their annual report: http://ir.ltbridge.com/node/13826/html. Long-Term Non-Qualified Option Grants In August 2018 the Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors granted long-term non-qualified stock options relating to 1,752,791 shares to employees, consultants, and directors of the Company. These stock options have a strike price of $0.90. Out of this total, approximately 1,540,263 stock options were issued to employees and consultants. These non-qualified stock options contain service, performance and market conditions of which one must be achieved in order for the options to vest. The service condition vests one-third annually over a 3-year period with accelerated vesting of these options occurring upon applicable performance or market conditions being satisfied by certain milestone dates. Accelerated vesting of these option grants to employees and consultants would occur upon achievement of either of the following performance and market-based milestones: 1.The Company’s closing stock price is above $3 per share for 10 consecutive trading days by December 31, 2019. 2.The Company secures at least $5 million of funding from the Department of Energy by June 30, 2019. The remaining approximately 212,528 stock options were service based options issued to the directors of the Company that vest over a one-year period on the anniversary date of the grant. All options granted have a 10-year contractual term.
@Dan Thunderbolt and @UrSeculator , if you two haven't already, you should be plowing through NRC's ADAMS database for any info you can find on regulatory review and review schedules of not only NuScale/Lightbridge technology but competing technologies as well. There's a lot going on in this space, but the hurdle to clear regulatory requirements is high. I often see claims from public companies involved in nuke energy technology that simply isn't compatible with the regulatory realities. I've not looked specifically at Lightbridge, however, and for your sakes I hope they are on track. See if you can find a NuScale/Lightbridge docket number, and then plug that number into ADAMS to get just about everything related to Lightbridge that NRC has publicly available. Anything that isn't publicly available (usually for commercial proprietary reasons) is potentially FOIA'able. Good luck!
Lightbridge Corporation: Next Steps To Achieve Nuclear Fuel Success Aug. 22, 2019 12:21 PM ET https://seekingalpha.com/article/42...ation-next-steps-achieve-nuclear-fuel-success Summary Nuclear Fuel Concepts and where Lightbridge stands. DOE Funding sources. What Lightbridge has and hasn't won. Fuel Fabrication plans and why this has become central to their success. Investor Relations: An area of potential improvement and value. Risks and how they can be overcome.
With each day that passes by we are getting closer to achieving some of the near term milestones which have the potential of moving the share price significantly higher. Maybe days, weeks or a few more months... Below is a twitter link that takes you to a tweet: "Jeff Whitt, Director of Government Services at @Framatome, discusses the future of the nuclear fuel industry at the #Ready4Nuclear conference held on August 28th & 29th." https://twitter.com/LightbridgeCorp/status/1167088424710545410 Lightbridge is named in the slide. More importantly, the "twisted rod prototype" is pictured in the slide. It is already a strong endorsement that Lightbridge is specifically mentioned by Framatome.
Investor Presentation July 25, 2019 http://ir.ltbridge.com/static-files/c3af4edd-924b-4103-845f-5c5284754b01 Near-term milestones: -2019: Demonstrate fabrication of full length co-extruded rod using surrogate materials -2019: Enter into Lead Test Rod agreement with U.S. electric utility -2020: Manufacture fuel samples & begin irradiation testing in research reactor -2021: Start Lead Test Rod operation in a U.S. commercial reactor
Lightbridge CEO to Host Keynote Panel at Global/Top Fuel 2019 Conference in Seattle September 20, 2019 09:00 ET | Source: Lightbridge Corporation https://www.globenewswire.com/news-...obal-Top-Fuel-2019-Conference-in-Seattle.html
Enfission and Lightbridge Announce Successful Demonstration of Patented Manufacturing Process and Fabrication of Lightbridge Fuel™ Surrogate Rods for a NuScale Small Modular Reactor September 23, 2019 08:30 ET | Source: Lightbridge Corporation http://www.globenewswire.com/news-r...Rods-for-a-NuScale-Small-Modular-Reactor.html
Lightbridge Successfully Demonstrates High Temperature Co-Extrusion of Lightbridge Fuel™ Surrogate Rods for Commercial Scale Nuclear Reactors Using Patented Process GlobeNewswire•September 24, 2019 https://www.globenewswire.com/news-...-Nuclear-Reactors-Using-Patented-Process.html
The wait continues for the next milestone, the agreement to enter into Lead Test Rod agreement with U.S. electric utility. Based on previous information by the CEO this contract will include future payments. I am still confident that we will move well above $1 once the contract with the utility is finalized. Enfission and Lightbridge Provide Additional Updates Following Successful Demonstration of High-Temperature Coextrusion Process September 27, 2019 http://www.globenewswire.com/news-r...-of-High-Temperature-Coextrusion-Process.html
Nice news today but not the one I have been waiting for. But I assume we are getting closer every day finalizing the long awaited contract with the utility... Lightbridge Receives Notification of Patent Grant from the Korean Intellectual Property Office GlobeNewswire•October 3, 2019 http://ir.ltbridge.com/news-release...dge-receives-notification-patent-grant-korean
