Lightbridge’s total corporate research and development costs, included in the caption research and development expenses in the accompanying consolidated statement of operations, amounted to approximately $0.9 million and $2.7 million for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively. See Note 11. Related Party Transactions, regarding consulting fees charged to Enfission for research and development expenses incurred by Lightbridge on behalf of Enfission in 2019.

On December 19, 2019, the Company was awarded a voucher from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) program to support development of Lightbridge Fuel™ in collaboration with Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The scope of the project includes experiment design for irradiation of Lightbridge metallic fuel material samples in the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) at INL. On April 22, 2020, the Company entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC, the operating contractor of INL, in collaboration with DOE. Signing the CRADA was the last step in the contracting process to formalize a voucher award from the GAIN program. The project has commenced in the second quarter of 2020. The total project value is approximately $846,000, with three-quarters of this amount funded by DOE for the scope performed by INL and the remaining amount funded by Lightbridge, by providing in-kind services to the project.

For the year ended December 31, 2020, approximately $73,000 of work was completed by INL that caused the DOE to incur payment obligations related to the GAIN voucher. This amount was recorded as grant income in Other Operating Income (Loss) line item of the consolidated statement of operations and the corresponding amount as research and development expenses. No work was completed by INL for the year ended December 31, 2019. The Company completed a contract extension for the INL GAIN voucher in January 2021. The period of performance now runs through September 30, 2021.