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DATE
Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026 at 8:30 a.m. ET
CALL PARTICIPANTS
- Vice President of Investor Relations and Public Relations - Tyler Gronbach
- Chief Executive Officer - Simon Irish
- Chief Financial Officer - Brian Thrasher
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TAKEAWAYS
- Estimated Lifetime Revenue -- $2.7 billion per IMSR plant, an increase from $2.1 billion following engineering updates to core unit and fuel salt supply economics.
- Blended Gross Margin -- 33%, up from 22% in previous estimates, reflecting the concentration of high-margin supply businesses.
- Serviceable Addressable Market -- $2.3 trillion by 2050, representing a $400 billion increase over prior company forecasts.
- Total Liquidity -- $283.4 million in cash, cash equivalents, and investments as of June 30, 2026, compared to $289.9 million at the end of the previous quarter.
- Quarterly Cash Burn -- $6.4 million, or approximately $2.2 million per month, a decrease from $2.6 million per month in the first quarter of 2026.
- Commercial Pipeline -- 7.8 gigawatts of indicative generating capacity, including 4 gigawatts targeted for Riot Platforms data center operations.
- Net Loss -- $9.4 million for the second quarter, representing a sequential decrease from a $10.5 million loss in the prior quarter.
- R&D Expenses -- $3.5 million, a decrease of $1.1 million from the first quarter due to timing variances in graphite irradiation testing cycles.
- G&A Expenses -- $8.0 million, up $700,000 from the first quarter driven by headcount growth and stock-based compensation.
- Core Unit Revenue -- $1.6 billion in cumulative lifetime revenue per plant, based on the supply of 16 core units over a 56-year design life.
- Core Unit Profit Margin -- 33%, identified as a principal business combining proprietary intellectual property with production capabilities.
- Fuel Salt Supply Margin -- 40%, supported by a simplified two-step production process that avoids physical fuel fabrication.
- IMSR Plant Capacity -- 390 megawatts electric, designed for modular construction and factory production of components.
- NRC Regulatory Milestone -- May 12 approval of the Postulated Initiating Events methodology, establishing a foundational element of the plant licensing basis.
- Site Acquisition -- 77-acre ground lease secured at the Texas A&M RELLIS campus for site characterization and environmental evaluation.
- Operating Lifecycle -- Seven-year replacement cycle for IMSR core units, which capture 58% of total plant lifetime revenue.
- Fuel Salt Revenue Share -- 21% of total lifetime revenue, secured through long-dated supply contracts following plant construction.
- Graphite Irradiation Testing -- Continued cycles at the NRG Petten test reactor to support materials qualification and licensing readiness.
- Interest Income -- $2.5 million for the quarter, reflecting the yield on the company's significant cash and investment balance.
- Stock-Based Compensation -- $2.9 million for the second quarter, representing a $500,000 increase from the first quarter of 2026.
- Share Count -- 105.9 million shares issued and outstanding, consisting of 82.7 million common shares and 23.2 million exchangeable shares.
- Organization Size -- 74 employees as of the current reporting period, with personnel-related expenses contributing to the sequential rise in general and administrative costs.
SUMMARY
Terrestrial Energy Inc. (IMSR +4.04%) reported progress across its engineering, regulatory, and commercial pillars, highlighted by an update to its business model and total addressable market forecasts. Management stated that the company will follow a capital-light approach by focusing on the manufacture and supply of core units and fuel salt rather than plant ownership or operation. The company secured site control at the Texas A&M RELLIS campus to assemble its commercial construction permit application and continued its partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy on fuel pilot programs. Strategic developments during the quarter included the advancement of the licensing basis through federal safety evaluations and the execution of a power supply agreement for data center operations.
- CEO Irish stated that the company operates a "capital-light business model," allocating capital to high-margin businesses where it has a "competitive and defendable advantage."
- Management described the plant's dual-fuel capability as a "differentiating feature" that allows data center operators to receive power within five years using natural gas while nuclear systems are commissioned.
- CEO Irish noted that the IMSR fuel salt production stops at step two, avoiding the "very considerable risk, cost, and complexity" associated with the physical form fabrication required for solid fuels.
- The company's choice of LEU fuel enriched to less than 5% avoids the "costs, uncertainties, and complexity of HALEU" chosen by other reactor developers, according to Irish.
- Management reported that the back-end of the plant can be driven by natural gas to deliver power quickly, as data center operators are currently "not, for the moment, price sensitive."
- CEO Irish stated that the fuel qualification process for the liquid-fueled reactor focuses on demonstrating "heat transport properties" rather than the containment boundary performance required for solid fuel pins.
- The company is collaborating with Westinghouse to secure the chemical form of the fuel, specifically uranium tetrafluoride, which management described as a well-understood industrial process.
INDUSTRY GLOSSARY
- IMSR: Integral Molten Salt Reactor, a proprietary small modular reactor technology that uses liquid fuel.
- HALEU: High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium, a fuel enriched between 5% and 20% often required for advanced Generation IV reactors.
- LEU: Low-Enriched Uranium, the industry standard for civilian reactor fuel, enriched to less than 5%.
- SMR: Small Modular Reactor, a class of nuclear fission reactors designed to be smaller and more modular than conventional nuclear plants.
- PIE: Postulated Initiating Events, a regulatory methodology used to evaluate safety responses to potential equipment failures or accidents.
- PDC: Principal Design Criteria, the foundational safety requirements for a nuclear power plant design and licensing basis.
- TETRA: A test reactor pilot project conducted by Terrestrial Energy in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy.
- TEFLA: A fuel line pilot project focused on developing the chemical production processes for commercial fuel salt supply.
- RELLIS: The Texas A&M University System campus used for high-tech research, testing, and commercialization of new technologies.
Full Conference Call Transcript
Operator: Greetings, and welcome to the Terrestrial Energy's Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Tyler Gronbach, VP, Investor Relations and Public Relations. Please go ahead.
Tyler Gronbach: Thank you, Operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Terrestrial Energy's Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. I'm Tyler Gronbach, Vice President of Investor Relations and Public Relations. Joining me today are Simon Irish, Chief Executive Officer, and Brian Thrasher, Chief Financial Officer. Simon will begin with a review of our strategic and operational progress during the quarter, and Brian will follow with a discussion of our financial results. We will then open the call for questions. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that we have posted the quarterly results press release and summary slides to the Investor Relations section of our website at terrestrialenergy.com.
I'd also like to remind you that today's discussion will include forward-looking statements about our business, operations, and financial outlook. These statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. We encourage you to review the risk factors described in our SEC filings for a more complete discussion of those risks. With that, I'll turn the call over to Simon.
Simon Irish: 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.
Brian Thrasher: Thank you, Simon, and good morning, everyone. Turning to the financials, and consistent with last quarter, I will present on a sequential basis comparing to the first quarter of 2026, as this comparison is more informative given the transformation in the business in 2025. The theme this quarter continues to be disciplined spend, aligned to our programs, and a clean balance sheet. As summarized on slide 16, at quarter end, we have total cash, cash equivalents, and short and long-term investments of $283.4 million. This compares to $289.9 million at the end of the first quarter. Cash burn for the quarter was $6.4 million, or approximately $2.2 million per month.
This compares to cash burn of $7.9 million for the first quarter of 2026, approximately $2.6 million per month. The decline largely reflects a shift in the timing of some testing activities, and I will provide additional color during my update. Spend will increase during the second half of the year. Our agreement with Texas A&M for the RELLIS land leases has allowed us to work on the final stages of site analysis and characterization work. And that spend is now underway. This is consistent with the guidance we gave in the first quarter. Cash burn would increase through calendar 2026 as we scale testing programs, project activities, and expand our organizational capabilities. I'll now turn to operating expenses.
Research and development expenses were down approximately $1.1 million quarter-on-quarter. This is related to timing and scope variances on some key tests, notably the addition of 3 graphite irradiation cycles at the NRG Petten test reactor. We have also elected to build a greater irradiation and materials knowledge base in-house, which contributed to the decreased spending sequentially. General and administrative expenses were up approximately $700,000 quarter-on-quarter. The majority of this increase was from stock-based compensation, which increased by $500,000. These increases were driven by headcount growth as we scale organizational capacity to support our programs. Turning to our capitalization table as shown on slide 17. The issued and outstanding share count was unchanged during the second quarter of 2026.
The fully diluted share count increased modestly by approximately 300,000 shares in the quarter due to stock option grants I previously mentioned. In summary, cash, cash equivalents, and cash investments make up the vast majority of our assets. We have modest current liabilities and lease obligations combined with no debts. Our balance sheet remains simple and clean. With that, Operator, please open the line for questions.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first question will come from Jeff Grampp with Northland Capital Markets.
Jeffrey Grampp: Simon, I wanted to spend a minute here on the change in the economics, the increase there. I know you covered it a bit in the prepared remarks, but I want to make sure I understood that. Is that more of a function of, I guess, shall we say, fine-tuning some of the estimates? Has anything fundamentally changed about the approach, your scope, or any other details we should be aware of to better contextualize that?
Simon Irish: Well, good question, Jeff. Well, from this model perspective, nothing has changed. It is an iteration in our estimates of unit economics. And the catalyst here has been the engineering work that we've undertaken over the last 18 months. And in particular, the engineering work that's going into TEFLA, which is the fuel line pilot. Perhaps that's the catalyst and the trigger for us to reissue the entire set of unit economics. It's also an opportunity for us to talk further about our principal businesses and why we believe that they are attractive businesses and will provide the drivers of value creation going forward.
Jeffrey Grampp: Got it. I appreciate those details. For my follow-up, on the DOE projects, TETRA and TEFLA, can you cover what kind of would be the near-medium-term milestones to just track progress towards any potential, I guess, initiation of construction activities or anything else we can be keeping an eye out for?
Simon Irish: Yes. We haven't provided further guidance on exactly what those future milestones are, but other than to say that we are continuing to execute on both projects. Both projects continue to be very important for us, not least because of the support of the DOE in project execution. TETRA deals with some of the data collection activities that we need to complete to support the license application, and TEFLA, as I mentioned earlier, TEFLA is the opportunity for us at pilot scale to define precisely the fuel production processes that we will be looking to scale up into the commercial plant for IMSR fuel salt supply.
But we haven't provided details on exactly what milestones, precisely when to expect those on TETRA and TEFLA, simply to say that those projects continue to be very much the focus of attention on our end, important projects, and we're working on continuing to execute on them.
Jeffrey Grampp: Understood. We'll stay tuned.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] We'll go next to Alex Fuhrman with Lucid Capital Markets.
Alex Fuhrman: I wanted to ask you about the use of natural gas as a bridge fuel. Can you tell us how long you expect your plants to be using that gas as a bridge fuel, and what do the unit economics of your plants look like during that interim period?
Simon Irish: Yes, so Alex, this is -- I think, you're speaking to a very interesting characteristic of our plant. So we can use natural gas in the back end because the back end of our plant sits outside, we believe to sit outside the nuclear regulatory envelope. You can do this with certain Generation IV systems. So, in terms of the use of natural gas, I will -- I've given guidance previously on what a typical SMR project would look like, which is 5 plus 5 years.
We would expect to be able to -- in that first 5 years, to put into commercial operation the back end of our plant where the steam systems will be driven by natural gas combustion. Now this would be a capital-efficient way of doing it. It wouldn't be a combined cycle plant. That would be an operationally very efficient way of using natural gas. This would be a capital-efficient way of doing it. Namely, you'll be using all the CapEx you'd be deploying. The systems you'd be deploying would be dual-purpose systems. They can be driven by natural gas, and they can be driven by thermal energy from nuclear systems.
So you will see, if you're simply using natural gas to create steam, you'll see the type of thermal efficiency that you'll get with a coal plant. You wouldn't see the thermal efficiency you'll get with a combined cycle plant. But nonetheless, it is a capital-efficient way of building a dual-fuel back end to our plants. Dual-fuel namely nuclear systems and natural gas systems. We would anticipate because the back end of that plant would consist of standard industrial equipment, being able to bring power online commercially within 5 years. And we believe that's deeply relevant to many, particularly in the AI data center sector, where you hear the requirements there end, speed to power.
Namely, what is super important to them is get access to power quickly, and they're not, for the moment, price sensitive. Over the long run, I expect them to be deeply price sensitive, but perhaps not in the short run. So this allows us to -- for a data center operator -- and others in the industrial world as well, it's not just data centers. This allows us to say we're able to deliver your requirement tactically in the near term, which is power, and we're also able to deliver what you need strategically in the 2030s in the long run, where you have clean, firm, cost-competitive nuclear power, and that's the advantage of this dual-fuel approach.
Alex Fuhrman: Okay, that's really helpful. And then I appreciated the description of the various stages of the nuclear fuel supply chain. Can you just kind of summarize for us a little bit? Is the takeaway there that your design can run on fuel that is commercially available today, or are you depending on some new fuel that's going to come online in the future?
Simon Irish: Well, the -- firstly, the neutronic form of it is commercially available today, that's step 1. Step 2, we require a chemical form of our fuel which is uranium tetrafluoride. Now fluorination as a chemical process, both conversion and deconversion, has been baked into the nuclear supply chain for decades and decades. The nuance here is that we require uranium tetrafluoride where the uranium is enriched to 5%. Uranium tetrafluoride typically exists in the nuclear fuel supply chain on the other side of the enrichment process, namely the tetrafluoride is using natural uranium. But nonetheless, fluorination is -- the chemical process is very well understood.
We're working with Westinghouse on uranium tetrafluoride supply and that's the piece that we need to work on from the supply chain perspective. But it's a much, much smaller, much, much more straightforward step compared to the various steps that need to be brought to the table if you're using HALEU and using HALEU in physical fuel form, namely maybe metallic uranium used in physical reactor assemblies or a TRISO fuel. So we think it's a much, much simpler process. And it requires just 1 plant, namely a plant which will produce uranium tetrafluoride enriched to less than 5%.
And our product from that plant will be the IMSR fuel salt, where we'll be taking uranium tetrafluoride enriched to no more than 5% and in carrier salts, which are standard industrial chemicals, fluoride form as well. The production process would naturally because it's producing a nuclear regulated product fuel. That production process would have a very tight set of production requirements and would be regulated as such.
Alex Fuhrman: Okay, that's really helpful.
Simon Irish: Thanks, Alex.
Operator: And we'll go next to Derek Soderberg with Cantor Fitzgerald.
Drew Nordquist: Hi, this is Drew Nordquist calling for Derek. Congrats on the quarter and thank you guys for taking our questions. Now that the PDC and PIE are approved, what are the additional topical reports that are going to be needed? And then just wondering if you guys can provide an update on where you are in fuel qualification.
Simon Irish: Okay. Fuel qualification. So Drew, good question. And firstly with respect to the two topical reports, yes, we've completed two of them. Last year, the principal design criteria and this year it was postulated initiating events. In March, we gave guidance on three topical reports this year, guidance that we would be submitting the topical reports to the NRC where we have clearly with the postulated initiating event methodology, we have achieved one of those three. We still expect to be submitting the full three. So you can expect from the company over the coming quarters this year to be submitting two further -- at least two further topical reports. And Drew, could you repeat the second question please?
Drew Nordquist: I was wondering if you could provide an update on where you are at with fuel qualification.
Simon Irish: So, fuel qualification is different with a liquid fuel reactor system. Fuel qualification typically is a long pole in the regulatory tent for solid fuel reactors because you have to prove the performance of that fuel pin in all operating conditions in the reactor core. It's notoriously long and complex for solid fuel reactor systems. That's not the case for us. Fuel qualification for us is to demonstrate that we understand all the technothermal characteristics of our salt. Namely we can present to the NRC what the specific heat capacity is of the salt. And those characteristics allow us to define the heat transport properties of the fuel.
So a different process, I would argue, a more straightforward process than the very complicated process associated with fuel qualification for physical fuel. Recall that fuel qualification of physical fuel, when you're talking about the performance of that cladding for physical fuel, that's the first containment boundary. So fuel qualification is about proving that they perform their containment boundary. We don't have that fuel qualification requirement, so it's a very different process. Not so well understood because we're talking about a liquid fuel, but the qualification process is largely ensuring that we collect all the data in a compliant way to demonstrate to the regulator that we understand the heat transport properties of our fuel.
Operator: And moving on to Craig Irwin with ROTH Capital Partners.
Craig Irwin: So Simon, I wanted to ask a little bit about your MOU with Riot. This seems like a really exciting customer. I was wondering if there was maybe more color or more detail you might be able to share with us. So, for example, have you been discussing with them potential initial sites, and timeline for development of those sites? Has there been work done on the evaluation of subsidies or government support, low-cost financing for your first units? And do you have any color on how those units are likely to be financed, other than through government support?
Simon Irish: Yes, so the -- we have given guidance on our relationship with Riot in the form of the parties at this point are doing some preliminary site characterization work. The intention would be, again, to down select to a target candidate for a site. We haven't disclosed what that site is. And probably at this point in time, I wouldn't want to give any further guidance. Probably that would include on timelines as well. In terms of how this type of project is going to be financed, I think this type of project would be financed, clearly it would be state interest in financing this type of project.
And I think that's true -- very much true, at the federal level as well. But in terms of the broad mechanisms of capital formation around this type of project. The capital formation, in my view, is not going to be associated with a classic project finance. These are highly strategic projects for everyone who's going to be involved. They're obviously very strategic for us, because these represent, our project Riot represents a project which is sort of the first 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 for Terrestrial Energy. So a very important project. That's also very true for Riot as well.
Success with their first project with us provides the pathway for Riot to that 4 gigawatts, highly strategic 4 gigawatts in the 2030s. That's true also for the suppliers. Success for the first project is going to be highly strategic for the suppliers. It's going to be true for the constructor as well, and it's going to be true for the operator. So I see capital formation associated with these projects, particularly with equity capital formation associated with the participation in that consortium. We are part of that consortium, but we're not looking to build and operate the plant.
But capital formation for those first plants is going to be associated with the strategic value that they represent to everyone who's going to be involved. And do recall the strategic values associated with our pursuit of an opportunity in a serviceable addressable market, which is running past $2 trillion. So getting it right with plants 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, gives you -- that's table stakes into a massive market for SMR deployment in the 2030s. That is going to be the mechanism in my opinion for capital formation.
It's going to be supported and I think vigorously it's going to be supported by various agencies and policy initiatives at the federal government level I think for where some of them are and it's also going to be supported at the state level as well so that's how I see that the financing developing with these projects.
Craig Irwin: Thank you for that. If I could revisit the IMSR fuel salt supply approach. The conventional approach, 3 steps, 3 plants. The way that you're going to approach things for your fuel, 2 steps, 1 plant. Can you maybe unpack the economics a little bit for us? Do you have potential line of sight on maybe better than 50% lower costs on an energetically similar fuel type versus conventional plants?
Simon Irish: Well, we've given guidance on total revenues for that fuel business, Craig, and we've given guidance that 40% gross profit margin, which is, that's middle of the park. We don't want to stretch this point too much. We think that 40% is very reasonable when you're looking across the market and you say, what are the typical gross profit margins on fuel supply. But certainly, the whole fuel supply process our end is -- consists of far fewer steps, fewer plants associated with the fuel supply business than you typically see with solid fuel reactors.
There's going to be from a cost perspective to the customer, the owner operator of the nuclear plant, there's going to be a tremendous advantage because per gigawatt year, our fuel is going to be from the schematic representation on that slide, our fuel is going to be significantly less expensive than the fuel you would have from solid fuel reactors, and particularly from Generation IV systems, where you have to, from a standing start, you have to set up potentially 3 new plants. That's going to be costly, and it's going to be represented in the fuel.
Craig Irwin: Understood, understood. Well, congratulations on the progress. We look forward to your success.
Operator: And this now concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the floor back over to Simon Irish for closing comments.
Simon Irish: Thank you for joining us today and for your interest in the company. We set clear expectations earlier in the year and we continue to meet them. We have a small modular reactor plant design of exceptional potential, and we look forward to demonstrating progress milestone by milestone through 2026 and beyond. Thank you.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation. This does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines and have a wonderful day.
