Lightbridge Corporation, has entered into a cooperative research and development agreement with Battelle Energy Alliance, the operator of the US Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory to design an experiment for irradiation of metallic fuel material in the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR).

The agreement is valued at $845,000. The US DOE will fund three-quarters of this under its Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) programme.

Under the agreement, Lightbridge and INL will establish the test plan for measuring key thermo-physical properties of Lightbridge Fuel™ material both before and after irradiation in the ATR. INL will then perform the detailed design and establish the safety case for the experiment in the ATR.

The result from the project project will be the “complete design and safety case” needed for irradiation of the materials in ATR. The project timeline is 12 months, Lightbridge said.

 “We are delighted to achieve this milestone, entering into our first CRADA under the GAIN initiative,” said Seth Grae, President and CEO of Lightbridge Corporation.  “DOE is a forward-thinking agency that has committed to supporting nuclear energy innovations from American companies.”

Lightbridge is an advanced nuclear fuel technology development company based in Reston, Virginia, United States.