NANO invests in laser enrichment

US-based start-up NANO Nuclear Energy announced a collaboration with LIS Technologies (LIST), a privately-held emerging company which is developing laser enrichment technology. NANO says the collaboration “intends to reinvigorate the United States’ domestic uranium enrichment and fuel fabrication capabilities”.

It includes a $2m investment by NANO into LIST’s recently closed, over-subscribed $11.88m SEED round financing.

As part of a strategic agreement, NANO and LIST will collaborate on advancing LIST’s enrichment technology as it develops and moves towards the regulatory licensing process. LIST will ultimately provide NANO with quantities of uranium hexafluoride (UF₆) fuel for use in NANO’s portable microreactors, currently in the conceptual design stage, and for future sale by NANO and LIST to third parties.

NANO will develop supportive capabilities, including deconversion and fuel fabrication facilities, that will enable LIST’s enriched UF₆ to become part of an integrated fuel manufacturing process that delivers fuel to both NANO’s microreactor systems and the wider nuclear energy industry. LIST will provide NANO with enriched UF₆ at no cost to be fabricated and sold to customers and LIST will receive compensation as part of a profit-sharing arrangement to be agreed.

NANO believes that LIST’s technology has the potential to be fully developed, licensed and capable of producing commercial quantities of low enriched uranium (LEU) and high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fuel within ten years.

LIST’s technology utilises infrared lasers to selectively excite and separate desired isotope molecules as part of the enrichment process. The technology can also potentially be used to produce stable isotopes for medical and scientific research and has applications in quantum computing manufacturing for semiconductor technologies. LIST says its proprietary laser-based process is energy-efficient and can be deployed with relatively favourable capital and operational costs. It is protected by a United States Patent and Trademark Office-issued patent.

NANO Nuclear, founded in 2022, is developing ZEUS, a solid core battery reactor, and ODIN, a low-pressure coolant reactor, each representing clean energy solutions that are portable, on-demand NANO’s subsidiaries include Advanced Fuel Transportation (AFT), HALEU Energy Fuel (HEF) and NANO Nuclear Space (NNS).

AFT “led by former executives from the largest transportation company in the world” aims to build a North American transportation company that will provide commercial quantities of HALEU fuel to small modular reactors (SMRs), microreactor companies, national laboratories, military, and US Department of Energy (DOE) programmes.

HEF is focusing on the future development of a domestic source for a HALEU fuel fabrication pipeline for NANO’s microreactors as well as the broader advanced nuclear reactor industry. NNS is exploring the potential commercial applications of NANO Nuclear’s developing micronuclear reactor technology in space.

“This strategic collaboration with LIST is another important milestone for NANO Nuclear as we believe it provides us with a competitive edge over other advanced reactor companies in the US,” said Jay Yu, NANO Founder and Chairman. “The technology being developed by LIST has the potential to reshape the United States’ uranium enrichment capabilities and pave the way for the next generation of advanced nuclear reactors to be a carbon-neutral and efficient solution to its growing energy demands.”

Christo Liebenberg, LIST CEO, said: “NANO Nuclear’s backing in our oversubscribed financing round is allowing us to rapidly advance along a carefully planned growth strategy to potentially becoming the first true, scalable and commercialised laser uranium enrichment company in the world. LIST believes in building back the US nuclear infrastructure and we look forward to rapidly advancing our technology. Furthermore, we believe this strategic collaboration creates a substantial advantage for both companies and the broader US market, positioning us to capitalize on a novel opportunity.”

NANO will collaborate with LIST on joint research and development initiatives. LIST will also act as NANO Nuclear’s preferred supplier of enriched UF₆ in future fuel purchasing agreements. NANO Nuclear and LIST are related parties through certain common ownership and commonality of certain officers and directors. NANO said the transaction between NANO Nuclear and LIST was reviewed and approved by NANO Nuclear’s independent directors who have no role with LIST.