Simon Irish
Analyst · Northland Capital Markets
Thank you, Tyler, and good morning, everyone. When we last spoke in May, I reported progress against the 3-pillar framework of business plan execution that we set out in March guidance. Today, I will do the same for the second quarter and then spend the greater part of my time on our business model and our recent update to unit economics. Brian, then, will follow with our financial results. Over the past several months, we've been in front of investors more than at any point in the company's history, and that was deliberate. The nuclear tech sector is in a period of secular development. It is still a young and expanding sector for portfolio allocation as the market recognizes the structural long-term bull case for SMRs and nuclear energy supply. In this context, we're hearing a strong desire to understand the factors that differentiate nuclear plant designs, nuclear technology, regulatory and supply chain strategies, and business models. We understand the importance of this to investors' analysis for nuclear tech stocks, and during this call, we'll be discussing some of the unique factors that strongly position Terrestrial Energy. I will summarize the five nuclear plant design factors that differentiate the IMSR plant, talk further on our business model, and then our differentiated dual-threaded energy strategy. All this differentiation is in pursuit of one aim, the mission set by the company at its founding in 2013: to use nuclear innovation to solve the only problem worth solving with private capital, the affordability and capital efficiency of nuclear plants, and by extension, the cost of nuclear power, and solve that problem quickly and at scale. We are differentiated as everything we do, every decision we have made, points back to that founding problem statement in a clear and logically compelling way. This goal is the first point of differentiation. First, let me now talk through second quarter progress across the three pillars of business plan execution, referring to slides 4 and 5 of this quarter's investor update. And I will start with our engineering and regulatory programs. Project TETRA and Project TEFLA are test reactor and fuel line pilot projects, both in partnership with DOE, advanced in the quarter. TETRA will support the data collection required for the NRC operating license application for the IMSR plant. Project TEFLA will develop the fuel production processes for IMSR fuel salt commercial supply. On the regulatory side, on May 12, the NRC issued its safety evaluation report, approving our topical report on postulated initiating events methodology. This follows the previously issued safety evaluation report on IMSR principal design criteria, an early development and a point of differentiation. As I described during our first quarter earnings call, these approved NRC analyses form foundational elements of the IMSR plant's licensing basis and can be referenced in future applications without re-evaluation. Our graphite irradiation testing continued at NRG Petten, one of the world's most powerful test reactors. This work is essential for Terrestrial Energy's reactor materials qualification, licensing readiness, as well as supplier down selection. Over the quarter, we adjusted our NRG testing program, adding further irradiation cycles, which is also evident in quarter-on-quarter variances with R&D expenditures. Turning to the second pillar, supply chain developments. Procurement of fuel components and services continues for both the TETRA and TEFLA projects. This quarter, we announced an engineering service agreement with Zachry Nuclear, which supports the development of projects at the Texas A&M RELLIS site, and importantly, the site characterization and data collection work to assemble an NRC construction permit application for the planned commercial IMSR plant on that site. Turning to the third pillar, our commercial pipeline of IMSR plant projects. In June, we signed a ground lease and research agreements with Texas A&M for exclusive use of a 77-acre site at the RELLIS campus. This development provides the path to complete site characterization work and environmental evaluations for the IMSR plant and other facilities on the Texas A&M site in advance of construction. In May, we announced the relationship with Riot Platforms to supply electric power for data center operation. The parties' intention is to develop a best-in-class pairing of a small modular reactor plant with a large data center, taking advantage of the competitive operating characteristics of the IMSR plant, notably its capacity to use natural gas as a bridge fuel, initially to deliver fast commercial operation and power supply and then longer term as a backup after nuclear systems are in operation. This arrangement would take advantage of a differentiating feature of the IMSR plant design, namely the ability for its non-nuclear thermal and electric facility to be customized. This is not possible with the balance of plant systems tied to light water reactors. Our next step with Riot will be to down select to a first site, part of the program targeting 4 gigawatts of IMSR plant generation in support of Riot data center operations. With the Riot Platforms development, the indicative generating capacity of our pipeline of commercial projects grows to 7.8 gigawatts. Given these and other characteristics of the IMSR plant design, our commercial opportunities cover 3 large market verticals: data centers, industrial process heat, and the replacement of retiring coal plant capacity. I would like now to turn to our updates on unit economics and start with a brief recap of our business model. Referring to slide 6 of this quarter's investor update. Terrestrial Energy does not plan to build, own, or operate IMSR plants. We will leave these activities to others with long-established and recognized industry capabilities in construction and operation. In this respect, our business model is relatively conventional for a reactor developer. From this position, we can operate a capital-light business model, allocating capital efficiently to build high-margin businesses where we have a competitive and defendable advantage, and typically based on proprietary IP concentration and production capabilities. With additional engineering work over the last 12 months and directed at projects such as TEFLA, we have updated and re-estimated our IMSR plant unit economics and, by extension, our serviceable addressable market. Our business is to manufacture and supply to operating plants IMSR core units, a major reactor component, designed to be replaced every 7 years over the plant's 56-year design life. This implies the supply of 16 IMSR core units, or cumulative revenues of approximately $1.6 billion. The IMSR core unit contains the foundational IP of our company, an innovation that unleashes the extraordinary industrial potential of molten salt reactor technology. Our IMSR fuel salt supply business will capture proprietary expertise enabled now by TEFLA and other innovations. Both qualify as principal businesses because each combines concentrated proprietary IP with proprietary production capabilities. On slide 6, you will note that estimated cumulative lifetime revenues per unit are now $2.7 billion, up from $2.1 billion, with a blended gross profit margin of 33%, up from 22% in our prior model. Of those revenues, 79% occur following the construction of the plant and will be secured through long-dated supply contracts for the periodic replacement of the core units and regular fuel salt supply. The dominant activity at 58% of total revenues is core unit supply, with fuel salt supply being 21%. These businesses will drive most of the value creation in our future business. Our review of unit economics included a re-estimation of gross profit margins for the core unit and fuel supply businesses to 33% and 40%, respectively, higher than the margins for pre-construction and construction services. And this further points to the dominance of these two principal businesses. We expect to announce developments in the coming quarters as we move forward with our programs to build these two important supply businesses with their production facilities. Referring to slide 7, the updated unit revenue estimates have increased our serviceable addressable market to $2.3 trillion by 2050, up from $1.9 trillion, a $400 billion increase. This reflects the market that our plant design and supply businesses are built to serve at scale. I want to spend a few moments on our fuel strategy and development of IMSR fuel salt supply. As in our view, this is one of the most differentiated and underappreciated parts of the IMSR plant story. Referring to slide 8, conventional nuclear fuel production can be represented as a 3-step process. First, the production of the isotopic form of the fuel, whether LEU, HALEU, or even plutonium. Second, the production of the chemical form of the fuel, whether oxide, fluoride, or metallic forms. Third, the production of the physical form of the fuel, whether complex fuel in reactor assemblies or complex TRISO fuel elements. Each of these 3 steps requires a physical and discrete plant. It has to be built, licensed, and operated. For many novel fuel forms today, this requires the construction and operation of 3 new plants, 1 for each step. In contrast to virtually all other SMRs in the nuclear tech sector today, whether those using Generation III or IV technologies, IMSR fuel salt production stops at step 2. This is an important point of differentiation. As the IMSR is a molten salt reactor, a liquid-fueled reactor, rather than a solid-fueled reactor, its fuel does not have a physical form factor, so no step 3. The reactor fuel feed to IMSR plants is in the form of powdered output from the chemical production process from step 2, which in our case involves the fluorinated form of uranium and the addition of fluoride carrier salts under a tightly confined production process to create the IMSR fuel salt powder. This approach therefore avoids the very considerable risk, cost, and complexity of step 3 and further points to a strong, scalable, and relatively capital-light, inexpensive dual supply chain to support IMSR plant operation at fleet scale. I would like to draw attention again to the first step, the isotopic step, where we chose many years ago to use the long-established isotopic standard for civilian reactor fuel, LEU, enriched to less than 5%. This avoids the costs, uncertainties, and complexity of HALEU chosen by other Generation IV reactor developers, and the more complex and costly regulatory requirements that cascade sequentially into steps 2 and 3 of the fuel production process. While we rely on the industry's common isotopic form for our fuel, we've been working with Westinghouse on supply of the required chemical form, enriched uranium tetrafluoride. With this arrangement, Terrestrial Energy has 1 plant to build, a plant to complete step 2. The production process now catalyzed by TEFLA, our fuel pilot project in partnership with the DOE and supported by Westinghouse supply. We are heavily differentiated with this fuel supply strategy. In addition to our fuel supply differentiator unmatched in the nuclear tech sector of advanced reactors, we have 5 foundational nuclear plant and reactor technology differentiators, referring now to slide 10. First, our plant is small and right-sized at 390 megawatts electric. The market opportunity for financeable and near and co-located power generation. The IMSR plant is one-sixth the size of a conventional nuclear plant. Next, the IMSR plant's nuclear systems operate with a high energy density, enabling the design to capture the benefits of modular construction that are not possible with other Generation IV reactor technologies. This facilitates the powerful efficiencies of factory production of modular components for swift on-site assembly. However, our differentiation does not stop here. Referring now to slide 11. The heart of our plant is a nuclear technology that offers a triple operating advantage for economic performance and capital efficiency that we seek to deliver. IMSR plant supplies thermal energy at a best-in-class temperature of 585 degrees Celsius. Its nuclear systems operate at low pressure and with a high level of inherent safety that can only be delivered using molten salt reactor technology. These are powerful economic virtues that must not be ignored. This triple operating advantage differentiates our reactor technology and nuclear tech sector. Together, these 5 factors are what allow us to achieve our mission and bring to the market the most capital-efficient plant in the SMR sector, and with our fuel supply strategy to do it quickly and at scale, as shown on slide 12. To close, in March we set guidance for the year and across the 3 pillars of business plan execution. We're pleased with our progress this quarter against our benchmark. We have observed high sector and factor volatility in equity markets over recent months. However, our experiences are that the structural bull market for nuclear power with SMR innovations is solid, secular, and is growing. Against this demand, we'll be deploying the most capital-efficient plant in the SMR sector today. We recognize that the road ahead is one of program execution and traveled through the development of competitive skills and capabilities. Referring now to slide 14, during the quarter we continued to expand our organization. On the 29th of July, we announced the addition of Pam Cowan as Executive Vice President of Engineering. Pam joined us with more than 35 years experience in the commercial nuclear sector, including senior leadership positions at Westinghouse and Holtec. Concurrently, Kathryn McCarthy joined our Board of Directors. Kathryn has a career in major projects in nuclear technology development at Idaho National Lab, Oak Ridge National Lab, and other world-leading national labs. Most recently, she was Associate Lab Director of Fusion and Fission Energy at Oak Ridge. And currently, she is responsible for the overall management of the United States participation in ITER, a 27-nation international and benchmark fusion reactor project in France. We're pleased to be reporting this progress over the quarter and to be providing these updates. With that, I will turn the call over to Brian Thrasher, our Chief Financial Officer, to review our financial results.