US nuclear fuel technology company Lightbridge Corporation has announced its financial results for the fiscal year ended 31 December 2024, and provided an update on progress. “We believe 2024 was a transformative year for the nuclear industry as we saw unprecedented momentum in the adoption and development of nuclear power solutions,” said President & CEO Seth Grae.
“Our focus on developing next-generation metallic fuel for water-cooled reactors positions us to address the growing demand for reliable, sustainable nuclear power, from data centre operators and other industrial customers,” he added. “We are designing Lightbridge Fuel to offer superior heat transfer capabilities, resulting in lower operating temperatures, as well as enhanced economic and safety benefits that we believe will be crucial for existing large reactors and the emerging small modular reactor (SMR) market.”
Grae said collaboration with the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Idaho National Laboratory (INL) had continued. In March 2024, Lightbridge announced casting and extrusion of a demonstration sample consisting of depleted uranium and zirconium alloy, followed in February 2025 by co-extrusion of a sample consisting of an alloy of depleted uranium and zirconium with an outer cladding made of nuclear-grade zirconium alloy material.
In October 2024, MIT presented a technical paper with preliminary safety evaluation results at the TopFuel 2024 Conference in Grenoble. According to MIT, the results show promising safety and performance benefits for Lightbridge Fuel. Compared with conventional fuel, it demonstrated improved thermal-hydraulic margins, lower operating temperatures, and greater potential for power uprates.
In addition, a recent engineering study conducted by the Institutul de Cercetări Nucleare Pitești, a subsidiary of Regia Autonoma Tehnologii pentru Energia Nucleara (RATEN ICN) in Romania indicated that Lightbridge Fuel can double the discharged burnup in a Candu reactor at uranium-235 enrichment levels of less than 3%, compared with conventional uranium dioxide fuel. “Based on these favourable initial results, we plan to continue further evaluation of Lightbridge Fuel in Candu reactors,” Grae noted.
“Most recently, our memorandum of understanding with Oklo marks an important step forward, exploring potential synergies in commercial-scale fuel fabrication facility co-location and advanced fuel recycling technologies.”
The company reported working capital of $39.9m at the end of 2024, compared with $28.3m at the end of 2023. Cash and cash equivalents were $40m up from $28.6m in 2023. Cash used in operating activities was $9.5m compare with $6.5m in 2023. The increase was primarily due to increased spending on R&D, general and administrative expenses and changes in working capital. Cash provided by financing activities was $20.9m, an increase of $14.7m, compared with $6.2m in 2023. The increase was due to an increase in the net proceeds received from the issuance of common stock. Total assets were $41m and total liabilities $0.4m. Net loss was $11.8m for the year compared with $7.9m in 2023.
General and administrative expenses amounted to $8.5m compared with $7.1m for 2023. The increase of $1.4m was primarily due to an increase in employee compensation and employee benefits, stock-based compensation, IT expenses, travel and recruitment expenses, and patent expenses.
Lightbridge’s total research and development expenses amounted to $4.6m, compared with $1.9m for 2023. This was primarily due to the increase in R&D activities related to the development of Lightbridge Fuel. It primarily comprised increases in INL project labour, outside R&D costs, R&D employees and allocated employee compensation and employee benefits, quality assurance expenses, R&D modelling computer hardware and software and travel expenses.
Lightbridge said it currently anticipates investing approximately $17m for both capital expenditures and operating expenditures in the R&D of its nuclear fuel for 2025.
