Casual and experienced investors alike seem to always be looking for the next big technological innovation. While no one can say with complete certainty whether a given company is going to take off or not, those familiar with the clean energy industry have started to turn their attention to LIS Technologies.
LIS Technologies, a company that specializes in the production of enriched uranium to fuel nuclear reactors, has risen to prominence in the wake of the U.S. ban on Russian enriched uranium — a ban that left the country’s nuclear reactors without a source of fuel.
In the interest of furthering the development of domestic clean energy, the Department of Energy awarded six contracts to produce fuel for the country’s present and future reactors. One of those six companies went to LIS Technologies.
Many tech startups catch the eyes (and wallets) of investors with promises of dazzling innovations, but they don’t always deliver. LIST makes it clear that the company isn’t just crossing its fingers.
Reviving Proven Technology with a Modern Edge
The technology it relies on isn’t new. Before the country stopped producing its own nuclear fuel in favor of importing it at a lower cost, the U.S. had a thriving nuclear industry. While LIS Technologies has made the process much more efficient, its method of fuel production is based on decades-old technology.
“We want to actually say to the public, ‘No, we’re not trying to do this. It’s already been done,” says the company’s president, Jay Yu. “This was already demonstrated, and it came back with better-than-expected results.”
The LIS Technologies team is probably the best one for reviving that technology.
Before importing Russian uranium became commonplace, the U.S. was beginning to use a process called condensation-repression isotope-selective laser activation (CRISLA) to create nuclear fuel. Dr. Jeff Eerkens is the inventor of that process, and he’s also a co-founder of LIS Technologies.
The company’s other co-founder, Christo Liebenberg, is a laser scientist who has followed CRISLA since its inception. Much of his career has focused on optimizing CRISLA and making the process possible on a larger scale.
Meeting America’s Growing Power Demands
If the Department of Energy’s investment in nuclear energy is any indication, large-scale production of enriched uranium will soon become a necessity.
“We’ve got about 94 nuclear power plants producing 100 gigawatts, so roughly one gigawatt per nuclear power plant per year. That’s what we have currently,” says Liebenberg. “The projection is that by 2050, we need three times that amount of power, so we need 300 gigawatts by 2050. Between now and the next 25 years, we need 200 gigawatts of extra power, which means roughly 200 additional nuclear power plants.”
“We need to build 200 more plants over the next 25 years,” he continues. “That’s about one plant every 90 days. The whole nuclear industry and the supply chain has to ramp up hugely to be able to get to that three times higher power by 2050.”
The growing need for power might sound overwhelming from an outsider’s perspective, but fortunately, LIS Technologies seems well on its way to meeting that demand.
“Our type of laser is very different from what we’ve been using in the past,” Liebenberg says. “We’re going to use this new type of laser that’s much more scalable.”
Innovating Enrichment: Faster, Smarter, Scalable
The company’s new lasers enable it to produce enriched uranium at a faster rate than ever. Currently, there are two types of enriched uranium used in nuclear reactors: low-enriched uranium (LEU) and high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU). LEU has up to 5% U-235 (the specific uranium isotope needed to produce fuel), while HALEU has up to 20%.
Both types of fuel are important for the country’s developing nuclear power infrastructure. Older, larger reactors like the ones found in nuclear power plants tend to rely on LEU. By contrast, smaller, newer reactors are usually more efficient and rely on HALEU.
Historically, scientists have had to use lasers multiple times on the same batch of uranium to create LEU, making the process both tedious and time-consuming. LIST has created lasers capable of single-stage uranium enrichment.
“Single-stage means you hit the uranium only once and it’s enriched all the way from natural to the LEU level,” explains Liebenberg. “If you hit it again, you can go all the way to HALEU or 20%.”
LIS Technologies wants to send a message to Americans that clean energy is so much more than wind and solar power. As a new nuclear age draws nearer, so does the promise of a cleaner, brighter world.
