Lightbridge Corportion, developer of next generation nuclear fuel technologies and provider of nuclear consulting services, has announced its fourth-quarter results.
During the quarter, Lightbridge established a Nuclear Utility Fuel Advisory Board, strengthening its relationship with global nuclear utilities. Initial members of the board include top nuclear fuel managers from Exelon, Duke Energy, Dominion, and Southern Company. The company also began mapping experimental design for irradiation testing of Lightbridge-designed metallic fuel samples in the Advanced Test Reactor at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), the U.S Department of Energy's lead nuclear energy R&D facility, in order to provide information for the necessary 2012 safety analysis for irradiation experiments. Earlier in the year, the company succeeded in its attempts to eliminate the need for capsule irradiation testing, determining it was possible to go directly into irradiation testing with direct fuel-coolant contact.
Also during the quarter, Lightbridge received a notice of allowance from the Ukrainian patent office – the patent itself expecting to be issued in several months – for a thorium-based seed and blanket fuel assembly design for Russian-type VVER reactors. Lightbridge's involvement with the new technology is one part of a global movement toward using thorium as a new, safer alternative to uranium – a movement that has been gaining momentum in the wake of disaster at Fukashima. In 2011 the company also received a patent in the U.S. and from the nine-nation Eurasian Patent Convention for a specific locking mechanism for seed and blanket fuel assemblies.
Seth Grae, Lightbridge president and CEO, was encouraged with the company's advances throughout 2011 and this year hopes to complete the fabrication of semi-scale fuel samples for irradiation testing. "We believe we can complete a demonstration of full-scale, metallic fuel rod fabrication in 2013 and begin lead test assembly operation in a full-size commercial light water reactor by the end of 2017," he said on the company's website.
Revenue for Lightbridge in the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2011 was $0.8 million, compared to $1.2 million for the same period of 2010.