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21 Aug 2024
US startup aiming to advance isotope separation technology at new Oak Ridge facility.
LIS Technologies (LIST), a US-based startup whose name is derived from an acronym for Laser Isotope Separation, says that it has raised nearly $12 million in seed funding to further develop the approach for uranium enrichment.
With plans to expand operations in a new facility at the famed Oak Ridge nuclear laboratory in Tennessee, the firm claims to be the only commercial US entity to own patented laser uranium enrichment technology.
The seed round comes almost exactly a year after LIS Technologies acquired a company called CRISLA, Inc. CRISLA is an abbreviation of “chemical reaction by isotope selective [laser] activation”, a method for separating uranium isotopes using lasers that has been studied for decades by veteran researcher Jeff Eerkens, co-founder and CTO at LIST.
New facility build-out
LIST describes CRISLA, Inc. as the proprietary developer of the patented laser technology, which works by using specific laser wavelengths to selectively excite uranium-containing molecules into those containing the 235U isotope used to fuel hundreds of nuclear reactors around the world.
It had previously announced a $1.3 million seed round in March, but says that this was significantly expanded due to “overwhelming demand”. A form just filed with the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) confirms the equity raise, although it states the total as $8.6 million. Backers include the 28 Ventures Fund, an unspecified US-based nuclear technology company, and "active nuclear technology investors".
“The additional capital will help fuel the revitalization and rebirth of its proprietary, patented advanced laser enrichment technology, which was demonstrated in the 1980s and early 90s and assessed by the NNSA [US National Nuclear Security Administration] to a TRL [Technology Readiness Level] of 4,” announced the startup.
“These funds will help to advance the build-out of a new facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, for physical test work and demonstrations, and the company plans to attract additional top talent to its existing team of scientists and engineers.”
Laser experience
CEO Christo Liebenberg, who co-founded both LIST and CRISLA, Inc., with Eerkens, said in a statement announcing the latest funding:
“It is gratifying to witness the strong support for LIST and our vision for advancing the US nuclear energy industry and its fuel supply chain. Revitalizing this technology will mark a major milestone, not just for our company, but for the entire nuclear energy sector and industry in the US.
"With the potential to become the world’s most cost-effective uranium enrichment technology at scale, it promises a reliable domestic supply of LEU [low-enriched uranium] and HALEU [high-assay low-enriched uranium] fuels - key to a thriving and innovative nuclear industry.”
According to his LinkedIn profile, Liebenberg has a wealth of experience in the field, having previously worked at Silex Systems, the Australian company also developing laser isotope enrichment technology. He also spent several years at ASML working on laser-driven extreme ultraviolet (EUV) sources for semiconductor lithography equipment.
LIST explains that its laser enrichment method is sufficiently selective to enable the production of LEU in a single stage and HALEU in two stages. Claiming high throughput, high duty cycle and reduced complexity compared to competing technologies, the firm projects highly competitive capital and operational costs.
According to the firm's brief description of the technology on its web site, the CRISLA approach is based on 5 µm laser emission, which corresponds to a carbon monoxide (CO) source.
Silex competition
Aside from uranium enrichment for nuclear fuel, the CRISLA method is said to enable the synthesis of stable isotopes critical in certain medical applications and for scientific research, with potential in the growing field of quantum computing.
LIST faces direct competition from Silex, which last year raised just over $80 million to help commercialize its own approach to laser isotope separation.
In a report published in 2022 Silex pointed out that the US nuclear industry typically imports around one-fifth of its enriched uranium fuel requirements from Russia, with similar levels of reliance in other parts of the Western nuclear industry.
Shortly before announcing its own funding, Silex predicted: “We believe Western nuclear fuel markets will undergo a fundamental realignment over the next 12-24 months towards a more resilient and sustainable footing, with the aim of becoming less dependent on, or free of, reliance on Russian and other state-owned nuclear fuel suppliers.”
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