EnergyX enters nuclear materials market

[Ben Graham]

Energy Exploration Technologies (EnergyX) has announced the launch of the company’s new proprietary nuclear materials technology platform: NUKE-it.  

The platform is focused on producing nuclear-grade critical materials including lithium isotopes and high-purity lithium compounds, and the company said it is designed to meet stringent purity, performance, and supply chain requirements that traditional lithium suppliers are often unable to support. 

Last year, EnergyX acquired Daytona Lithium, which owns mineral rights in southwest Arkansas, where it is progressing its project Lonestar Lithium project in the Smackover formation with its near-completed demonstration plant. 

The company also bought another 35,000 acres in the Smackover, an underground geological formation stretching from Florida to Texas filled with lithium-rich brine, in a $26 million deal, upping the company’s stake to 47,500 acres. 

NUKE-it marks EnergyX’s formal entry into the nuclear materials sector, positioning the company as a future domestic supplier of critical lithium isotopes required for both fusion and fission reactors, it said. 

The new initiative, the company said, is designed to develop advanced technologies to support next-generation nuclear energy reactor supply chains, also including uranium and thorium materials production.  

Uranium is present in the Smackover Formation, particularly within the upper Smackover limestone reservoirs of southern Arkansas and northern Louisiana. 

Under its new technology platform, EnergyX said it is developing 15% enriched Lithium-6 (Li-6), a critical element for tokamak fusion reactors, as well as highly purified 99.999% Lithium-7 (Li-7) for fission-based thorium molten salt reactors (MSRs).  

Uranium and thorium technology and production are planned to follow, the company said, adding that these initial nuclear-grade lithium salts will be engineered for reactor-grade performance.  

This expansion is an extension from EnergyX’s proprietary GET-Lit DLE technology suite of lithium extraction, refining, purification, material conversion, and production capabilities.  

Several of the underlying technologies in GET-Lit have similarities and are being applied to nuclear lithium isotope production, addressing a growing supply gap for high spec nuclear materials.  

The platform aligns with US clean energy, industrial resilience, and national security priorities, including efforts to strengthen domestic supply chains for critical materials required in advanced energy systems, the company said. 

“EnergyX has always been focused on developing technologies to produce advanced materials for the energy transition,” founder and CEO Teague Egan said in a new release.  

“Nuclear energy is one of the most important opportunities of the century to enable the clean energy transition and deliver clean, sustainable, immense, “always-on” power, especially as electricity demand accelerates from data centers and the AI revolution,” Egan said.