Lightbridge, CNL team up to fabricate nuclear fuel test samples

Lightbridge Corp. and Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) have entered a comprehensive agreement to fabricate nuclear fuel test samples, the companies said on Monday.

The first portion of work under this agreement will set in place the fabrication plan by the end of this year. Following this, fabrication and characterization are set to begin in the early parts of 2016, followed by full-scale fabrication in the latter half of the year. They said this activity will take place at CNL facilities at Chalk River in Ontario.

“With this agreement with Canada’s premier nuclear science and technology organization, Lightbridge has put in place the last key enabling agreement to execute our critical path work scope relating to research reactor irradiation under prototypic commercial reactor operating conditions,” Lightbridge President and CEO Seth Grae said. “Our agreement with CNL is keeping development of Lightbridge-designed metallic fuel on track to deliver innovative, proprietary fuel that can help global utilities safely generate more carbon-free electricity at improved operating margins from existing and new-build reactors."

The company said these metallic fuel sources enhance the longevity of fuel, leading to increased generation capacity, and they are believed to be more efficient than current fuel rods in use in commercial power plants.