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 included 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 commenced in the second quarter of 2020. The total project value was 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 three months ended March 31, 2021, approximately $0.1 million 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 condensed consolidated statement of operations and the corresponding amount as research and development expenses. The cumulative amount of $0.2 million was recorded from September 2020 to March, 2021. The Company completed a contract extension for the INL GAIN voucher in January 2021. The period of performance now runs through September 30, 2021.

On March 25, 2021, the Company was awarded a second voucher from the DOE’s GAIN program to support development of Lightbridge Fuel™ in collaboration with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). The scope of the project is to demonstrate Lightbridge’s nuclear fuel casting process using depleted uranium, a key step in the manufacture of Lightbridge Fuel™. The project is anticipated to commence in the first half of 2021. The total project value is approximately $664,000, with three-quarters of this amount funded by DOE for the scope performed by PNNL.