NuScale Power Corporation (SMR) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, and welcome to NuScale's 2022 Third Quarter Earnings Results Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] A replay of today's conference call will be available and accessible on NuScale website at ir.nuscalepower.com. The web replay will be available for 30 days following the earnings call. A telephone replay will also be available for 7 days through a registration link, also accessible on NuScale's website. At this time, for opening remarks, I would like to turn the call over to Diane Hughes, Vice President, Marketing and Communications. Please go ahead, Ms. Hughes.

Thank you. Welcome to NuScale 2022 third quarter earnings results conference call. We appreciate your interest in NuScale, and thank you for joining. With us today, we have John Hopkins, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Chris Colbert, Chief Financial Officer. On today's call, John and Chris will provide an update on our business and discuss our results. We will then open up the phone lines for questions. We have posted a set of supplemental slides on our Investor Relations website. As reflected in the safe harbor on Slide 2, the information set forth in the presentation and discussed during the course of our remarks and the subsequent Q&A session includes forward-looking statements which reflects our current views of existing trends and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties. You can find a discussion of our risk factors, which could potentially contribute to such differences in our SEC filings on Form S-1 and Form 10-Q. I'll now turn the call over to John Hopkins, NuScale's President and Chief Executive Officer. John?

Thank you, Diane, and good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to be speaking to you from Sharm El-Sheikh Egypt, at COP 27 where we have been participating in medians of panels about the essential role that Nuclear will play in decarbonizing our global energy ecosystem to help meet our carbon reduction targets by 2050. We discussed the use of SMR technology to provide critical carbon-free power to Ukraine. The discussion included an announcement by the U.S. government to commence a pilot project in Ukraine that will demonstrate the production of clean hydrogen ammonia using NuScale's SMR technology carried out by a public-private consortium from the U.S., Ukraine, Japan and the Republic of Korea. This is another example how SMR technology can not only provide energy security but also offers a diverse energy platform from which to decarbonize multiple sectors and enable countries to address issues like long-term food security and energy scarcity. What this also underscores is that the level of excitement around nuclear has never been greater. Recent geopolitical developments have put a spotlight on a need for additional sources of clean and reliable energy. As a result, more governments, utilities and businesses across the globe are looking to nuclear as a viable way to power the future. As an example, at the recent International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, Nuclear Power Ministerial Conference in Washington, D.C., leaders from the governments of Japan, Ghana and the U.S. announced a strategic collaboration to support the deployment of SMR technology and Ghana. As part of this agreement, the government of Japan has funded a feasibility study in supply chain survey for the potential deployment of a NuScale VOYGR SMR power plant in Ghana. This collaboration is the first of a kind on the African continent, a market we believe could be well served by our technology. Administrations in the U.K., France and South Korea are also discussing extending the lines of existing plants, indoor building more nuclear power plants as part of a longer-term framework to meet net 0 emission targets. And it has been encouraging to see countries such as Germany reevaluate their stance on nuclear. Similarly, in the U.S., states are calling for extending the lifetimes of the current fleet or expanding the use of nuclear power. In California, for example, Governor Newsom signed a law to keep the Diablo Canyon power plant running for 5 years past its previous planned closure date. Virginia has recently released 2022 energy plan specifically calls out the need for reliable, baseload clean energy from SMRs, and calls for the first commercial SMR facility in the country to be placed in Southwest Virginia within 10 years. On the federal level, the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act represents the most consequential piece of legislation in support of nuclear since the Atomic Energy Act of 1954. We're also seeing the coal to nuclear concept be further embraced as a key strategy to build a new path for our energy communities. Chris will expand on both in his remarks. It is clear that this is an exciting time in NuScale VOYGR small modular reactor power plants offer a cleaner, safer and cost competitive path forward. NuScale technology is smarter, using proven pressure water reactor technology as the basis to create a simpler and modular design that can be fully factory fabricated. By shifting to a full factory fabrication and assembly oversight construction, we have the potential to reduce and stabilize costs while lowering schedule risk by moving more costly construction and erection activities to a factory environment. NuScale is a carbon-free energy source that is not only capable of producing reliable baseload electricity, but also designed for flexible operations that complement intermittent renewable energy generation sources and to provide processes for applications such as desalinization, hydrogen production and oil refining to further decarbonize the industrial sector as well as provide heat to communities via district heating circuits. The safety of NuScale's design is unparalleled due to our power modules ability to safely shut down and self cool indefinitely without the need for AC or DC power, operator or computer action or any additional water. This provides what is called an unlimited coping period, a first for light water reactor technology compared to days or weeks for other designs. And finally, in terms of being cost competitive, NuScale's SMR design is the only technology that is scalable, in that the facility can be operated from as few as 1 NuScale power modules to as many modules as the reactor build that is capable of housing. This scalable feature allows customers to expand the facilities of solve capacity over time to meet load growth or other economic considerations. And the facility does not need to have all modules installed to operate. As we shared last quarter, our technology is not hypothetical. We are putting the building blocks in place for commercialization. We are the first and only SMR technology provider in the world to receive design approval for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or NRC. This approval is foundational to validating the innovative safety of our design and has propelled the public acceptance of SMR technology domestically and abroad. To our knowledge, none of our competitors have even filed an application with the NRC for design approval, which means we are at least 3 years ahead of the competition for those technologies interested in deploying in the United States. Furthermore, our technology is backed by an established supply chain. We are aligned with proven and highly confident manufacturing partners, and we have developed a robust supply chain management organization to provide oversight and monitoring of suppliers. Together, these foundational elements are supported by our asset-light and diversified business model that monetizes value across the 60-year life of our plants. With that, I will move on to provide an operational update. As we prepared to list our company earlier this year, we established 5 near-term objectives for new scale to complete by year-end. As you can see on Slide 15, we are making strong progress on our 2022 priorities. As a reminder, our 5-year near-term objectives are, one, secure our next committed customer; two, issue long lead material specifications for the upper reactor pressure vessel; three, complete the reactor building design; four, complete our standard plant design, which I'll also refer to as the SPD throughout my remarks; and five, cementing standard design approval application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the VOYGR 6 modular power plant that our customer, Utah Associated Municipal Power System, plans to deploy. Now let's address each of these one by one. First, securing our next committed customer. Last quarter, I shared details but exciting opportunities in Romania and Poland. We have continued to make progress with potential customers in both markets and are optimistic that we will be able to secure our next committed customer by year-end. In Poland, we have made meaningful steps forward with KGHM, a large Polish copper and silver producer. On our last call, we mentioned that we have sent our proposal for a full scope to KGHM and that the proposal was under review. Since then, NuScale and KGHM have cited statement as commencement to initiate the deployment of the first SMR in that country. We have issued invoices for further development work, and KGHM continues to have fruitful conversations with the regulatory authorities of Poland where initial feedback has been positive. In Romania, the U.S. Train Development Agency awarded a grant for front-end engineering and design work with RoPower Nuclear SA, a subsidiary of Romania State Nuclear Power Corporation SA Nuclearelectrica. The 8-month scope of work includes tasks in the production of deliverables that will define the site in the customer-specific inputs for VOYGR 6 SMR power plant, that the Doicesti power station in Romania, a site with a decommissioned coal-fired plant and natural gas-fired units and represents another step towards a signed commitment. In addition, we are moving forward with deploying an Energy Exploration Center or E2 control room simulator facility at the University of Bucharest, which establishes the groundwork for Romania to serve as an SMR, educational and training hub for young and aspiring engineers in Eastern Europe. Finally, we recently participated in a series of supplier day events in Romania in partnership with Nuclearelectrica and Fluor. Engagements like this are a critical first step in leveraging Romania's local resources and supply chain in the manufacturing and development of our technology. Meanwhile, in the U.S., we continue to move forward with our anchor customer, Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems and their Carbon Free Power Project, where will deploy a VOYGR 6 SMR power plant by the end of the decade. Earlier this year, CFPP completed the geotechnical work at the site to support licensing activities totaling more than 47,000 hours of work. The data and site information has been used to complete the project seismic, hydrologic and volcanic analysis required for the Combined License Application or COLA to the NRC to be submitted in January 2024. Site work has continued this fall with field surveys being conducted via drones. And the site team recently mobilized to conduct groundwater sampling, calibrate the meteorological tower instruments and installed grounding rods. Furthermore, key contracts for original equipment manufactured engineering procurement and construction, and maintenance and operation contracts are in process of being developed. Looking into 2023 and beyond, our customer pipeline continues to be strong. As I mentioned earlier, interest in our technology intensified throughout the quarter as leaders in industry outside of our sector continue to embrace advanced nuclear solutions for the world's clean energy needs. Our recent NuScale symposium in Washington, D.C. a few weeks ago is a good example. We had more than 100 senior-level leaders joined from a broad spectrum of domestic and international utilities, power users and ministerial level leaders from countries interested in employing SMR technology. We're also joined by federal and state officials, a diverse cross section of the international supplier community as well as analysts and investors, signaling broad interest and support from the required stakeholders needed to finance, manufacture, build and deploy NuScale's SMR power plants around the world. Moving on to our second milestone. As we reported last quarter, we have issued a long lead material specifications for the upper reactor pressure vessel, which is a critical element in the procurement and manufacturing process of the NuScale Power module. We are now working with our key suppliers and further premanufacturing activities to ensure that the supply chain is ready to go in anticipation of placing long lead material items in the near term. So we are in good shape here, and we'll continue to advance our manufacturing and supply chain readiness. We discussed on last quarter's call that our third milestone, completing the reactor building design, was completed in July. The reactor building is a large robust structure that houses the NuScale power modules and is used to ensure maximum safety during normal operations and mitigate the consequences of any potential safety incidents. Given the importance of this structure, completing the design was an important step and supports our efforts in the broader standard plant design process. This brings us to the fourth milestone on our list, our goal of completing our standard plant design or SPD. Our vendors have submitted over 12,000 deliverables, including floor plans, procurement specifications, type stress calculation and helos. These deliverables, along with a comprehensive planned 3D model, make up the NuScale standard plant design. The completion of the SPD will provide a comprehensive plant design for potential customers to be leveraged and deploying NuScale VOYGR Smart power plants. This means significant savings for our customers as they can focus their investment in engineering resources on site-specific design changes. The design completion further advances the commercial viability of NuScale's technology, and we look forward to delivering good news by year-end. Finally, our fifth and last milestone is submitting the Standard Design Approval application, or SDAA, to the U.S. NRC for the VOYGR 6 SMR power plant. This is a work stream that focuses our 77-megawatt technology. This is not to be confused with our 50-megawatt technology, which has already been received standard design approval from the NRC. As a reminder, we started R&D efforts over a decade ago with a 12-module plan of 50 megawatts for each NuScale Power module. However, through value engineering efforts, we determined that the same NuScale module can deliver up to 77 megawatts, which would further enhance the use case for our technology. This power upgrade requires relatively minor changes to the physical model and some revisions to the analytical models that have since already been approved or are currently under review by the NRC. There is nothing novel in these methods, and the NRC has a great deal of experience with power uprates. So progress is being made on this milestone, and we're still on track to submit the SDAA by year-end. All in all, I am pleased with the advancements that the NuScale team has made towards our 2022 objectives and our broader work towards commercialization. Before I hand it over to Chris, I'd like to highlight a few other important achievements that we accomplished in the quarter. We continue to pursue and form strategic partnerships with entities that could help us provide customers with an integrated solution for the financing, development and management of SMR projects. These partnerships are important because they lower the barriers to entry for prospective customers by enabling us to offer a single source solution for financing and building a NuScale VOYGR power plant. We're also proud to highlight the NRC issued its final safety evaluation report, which approved NuScale's methodology to determining emergency planning zone or EPZ for the NuScale VOYGR SMR power plants. As opposed to traditional large-scale nuclear power plants, which are required to have an EPZ of 10 miles in the U.S., using this approved methodology NuScale VOYGR power plants can achieve an EPZ limited to the site boundary. This is significant because it demonstrates the unparalleled safety of NuScale's SMR design. A smaller EPZ also significantly reduces plant operating costs and further enables the sighting of NuScale's technology where it is needed most. For example, our VOYGR SMR power plants can be installed at retiring coal facilities near high-population zones, while other technologies may not. Lastly and critically, the NRC announced they voted to certify NuScale's SMR design noting that it meets the agency safety requirements. Completing certification of the 50-megawatt design sets the stage for an efficient and effective view of the SDAA. I mentioned earlier, especially since we've established alignment with the NRC staff on what a standard design approval application should contain. By being certified, the design now has the approval of the NRC staff, the Advisory Committee on reactor safeguards and the commission itself. As the first SMR design approved by the NRC, this achievement is a reminder of the unparalleled progress we have achieved towards commercialization. No other SMR technology provider has submitted to the NRC an application seeking design approval, let alone been approved and certified. So a lot of positive developments in the quarter. Now I'd like to turn the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Chris Colbert, to go over the financial highlights. Chris?

Thank you, John, and hello, everyone. I'd like to begin by touching on our third quarter financial highlights. With the detailed information available in our filings, I will focus on the primary drivers of performance. In terms of top line results, we generated $3.2 million in revenue in the quarter compared to $0.3 million in the third quarter of 2021. The increase in performance was driven by activities in support of the engineering, procurement and construction development agreement to the Carbon Free Power Project with additional consulting services around the nuclear technologies. Although trending positively, revenue remains a smaller part of our story at this stage, and our focus is on effectively managing our spend. Operating expense has and will continue to grow concurrent efforts to ramp our commercialization plan. Higher professional fees associated with the standard plant design and an increased headcount to support our licensing efforts drove R&D expenses in the quarter, while an increase in G&A are resulting from higher insurance and marketing expenses were partially offset by lower compensation costs. Investments in advertising and marketing are integral to building our brand recognition across the globe. Due to timing differences with our federal funding, the BOE cost share decreased slightly in the quarter. However, for the 9 months ended period, BOE cost share was $13.6 million more compared to the same time period in 2021 as we continue to advance our research. All in, our net loss in the quarter was $22.5 million greater than the comparable loss in the third quarter of 2021. Looking at other uses of cash, CapEx was minimal and mostly comprised of software and computer hardware to support R&D, which is consistent with our asset-light model. We continue to be well positioned to meet our near- and longer-term milestones. Our $318.6 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, further buoyed by our lack of debt provides us financial flexibility. NuScale considers its total shares outstanding for calculating market cap to be its Class A shares plus its Class B shares and units and owners will convert at their discretion. We realize that not all sources capture our structure appropriately. For clarity, based on this calculation as of November 7, 2022 was $2.6 billion. Before I turn the call back to John, I would like to touch on a couple of other major developments that will impact our business. Industrial projects across the board are facing an increase in raw material and financing costs driven by supply chain disruptions, rising interest rates and other macroeconomic dynamics. Pricing pressure on key materials such as steel, copper and mineral commodities has intensified both on a year-over-year basis and versus the pre-COVID period. While this cost inflation is something we will need to manage, I want to emphasize that it is not exclusive to NuScale or the nuclear industry. Every category of energy generation, including solar, wind, LNG and conventional fossil fuel projects are affected. The bottom line is that the nuclear SMR projects remain cost competitive with all other forms of energy generation which is a core part of our story at NuScale. The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act which John referenced earlier is an incredibly significant development for the nuclear industry. That will benefit our business model and help lower the levelized cost of energy for our technology. Previously, government credits around clean technologies only applied to wind and solar. The passage of the IRA levels the playing field now include nuclear in the government's clean technology framework. The selling takeaway here is that Advanced Nuclear will now enjoy a meaningful reduction in capital costs of 30% to 50%. While utilities and other stakeholders are still assessing the broader implications of the IRA, we expect to see a significant increase in interest in our technology as a result of this legislation. So we're taking this as a clear positive to a new scale business model in our future trajectory. With that, I would like to turn the call back to John for closing remarks.

Thanks, Chris. As a pioneer in the SMR nuclear industry, we are incredibly proud to have the opportunity to originate, build a unique business model that will deliver carbon free baseload energy and help provide clean energy at scale. We appreciate the strong interest from our investors and will continue diligently executing on our operational and financial milestones as we work to change the landscape of clean energy. Now more than ever, the world needs more clean energy sources, and we believe NuScale is prime to fulfill this need in a meaningful way. With that, we'll turn to questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Marc Bianchi with Cowen.

I guess, Chris, just because you were mentioning this on IRA, perhaps you could talk about what that's meant in terms of customer inquiry. I guess you mentioned that utilities are taking their time, but curious if there's other customers that have come in and started talking since the IRA was announced. Curious if you could quantify that to some degree. And give us a better handle on when we would hear more about those types of conversations.

Sure. And John, maybe you want to start off and I'll follow up after.

You go ahead, Chris. He asked you the question, I'll follow up.

Okay, all right. So the Inflation Reduction Act provides the opportunity of maybe a 30% to 50% reduction in the cost of a NuScale plant and that's driven quite a bit of interest and inquiries from the U.S. sector as they get their arms around, what it means for them in their individual circumstances. So the inquiries we've had have come from both the investor on utilities as well as other public sector or municipal power agencies similar to what UM says and even regional electric cooperatives such as Dairyland Power. So we expect that it will take a little bit of time for our folks to digest how the IRA applies to their particular circumstances as they start figuring that into their deployment decisions going forward. But suffice to say, we've received a large number of inquiries both from all those on the side that are providing power as well as from state policymakers who've asked us to come in and talk about the technology and how IRA impacts what they could see happening in their states. So with that, I would say it's a very exciting opportunity that we see accelerating the deployment of advanced reactor technology, including NuScale's in the United States, but it will take a little bit of time for folks to digest how that applies to them, and more importantly, how do they move forward to implement projects to take advantage of these technologies and the IRA benefit. John?

Yes, Marc, I just want to follow up and say having the IRA come out or getting as Chris stated, significant interest as we're seeing numerous potential power plants coming offline here within the next decade, major utilities are now looking at the IRA as it is because it looks to phase out about 2032. So they're looking to want to take advantage of these savings. So it could be up to 30% of cost. So that, plus what else I'm seeing here at COP 27 with discussions about European taxonomy, et cetera, we're seeing significant movement in terms of customers want to up their time line sooner than later.

One of the milestones here is the second secured customer. Can you just remind us what criteria is involved in claiming success on a second secured customer we see lots of MOUs and announcements that are moving the ball down the field, but I don't know what that trigger is for kind of counting the customer as a secured customer.

Yes, Marc, what we're looking at is it's a kind of -- in fact, just take a country like Poland or [indiscernible] there. We're looking at what's the regulatory framework? What is the funding? Where does the funding come from? What does the government support and most importantly, once money start changing hands, we have a working agreement and that's multiple millions of dollars now to assist KGHM in a variety of existing sites selection and other front-end work. So once that money starts moving, we have a tendency to look at it as a more secure customer. Same thing applies to Romania. And again, there, we have working agreements with them. So money's exchanging in hand, government supports there at the very senior levels. U.S. government supports there, as I said. We did a supply chain. In fact, we get all our suppliers together here in the last few weeks. So the momentum is greatly enhanced and moving forward.

Maybe if I could just slip 1 more in. On the part of Energy cost share appropriations, there's a Senate draft out there that seems to direct some funding away from NuScale. I'm just curious what that outcome would mean and how we should think about that in the context of the free cash flow guidance that you guys have talked to through becoming free cash flow positive in 2024?

Yes, let me start, and I'll turn it over to Chris. Every year, we go through the Senate appropriations bill. And as Chris stated, this year, we were $13 million more than last year. We're working both sides of the hill right now on appropriations to again continue to secure and to ensure that this technology and our project at CFPP moves forward. So the feedback we're getting on both side of the hill has been very positive. So we'll see what the end result is that we're working diligently on it like we do every year. Chris?

That captures it well, John. It's a process, right? So there's a president budget request, there's a House mark, a Senate mark. And then there's a conference, and this goes on every year. And so we need to see what comes out of that process. But if you looked at it historically, you see is that typically it takes some time for it to work through. we've been successful or at least have been appropriate at the levels that we have expected in the past. And that's not a predictor of the future. But right now, we're working both with the Department of Energy and with the various committees to make sure they understand what it is we're looking to achieve and that is appropriately funded going forward. So I'll leave it at that.

I guess I've had a couple of other questions come in as we've been on the phone here. Can you talk to the opportunity from the Ukraine announcement here on hydrogen? I guess, what's the time line for that to potentially convert into a project for you? And I know it mentions using solid oxide electrolysis, which my understanding is that's still more of an emerging technology for hydrogen electrolysis? Is there some technology achievement that needs to occur on the electrolysis side that is a gating factor in moving this project forward.

Yes. I will say I was extremely proud. I was on the stage with a special President onboard to Climate John Kerry and the Ukraine Energy Minister, Galushchenko when he announced this clean fuels that's marked by our project. It's not only just for hydrogen, but it's also for ammonia. And Secretary Kerry mentioned specifically about what it's going to take from an infrastructure rebuild and at the U.S. and other countries want to stand behind and particularly on the energy side. I thought what was really important when he announced that particular project for ammonia and hydrogen, many of new skills, key suppliers from the U.S., Japan and Korea are all engaged in this project. So it's in the early stage, and we're going to sit down and start having discussions, how it's going to -- how this works. But on a solid op side, it may be a little further ahead than you believe. And I'll just going to have to leave it at that.

Okay, I'll stick to the nuclear technology on the...

It is interesting to be in that stage. It was a crowded room. And then they also, if you remember, -- he announced another project called Project Phoenix, and essentially, this is to escalate the transitioning of Europe coal-fired plants to SMRs and the key for this is retaining local jobs. Now this is not dissimilar from what we're doing in Romania and Poland as well as what we're going to be doing in the United States. Coal refurbishment is going to be a huge opportunity globally for the Advanced Nuclear community.

Maybe last one, just on the warrants. Is there any color you can provide on plans around redemption or how you're thinking about updating the market on that? Is there anything that you're looking for or just general color that you can provide?

I'll turn that one over to Chris. Chris, please?

Yes, so we're aware of the situation and the triggers that have been met on that. And again, it really comes down to a conversation within the company what we think it's best given all the other particulars around our capitalization going forward, but we'll continue to monitor it. And we'll continue to evaluate the opportunity as that presents both in terms of perhaps exercising those redemption rates or letting him to stay. What I will note is that in the Q3, you'll notice that there was about $27 million of capital raised as a result of folks exercising warrants and options, which really was not expected. So there is some benefit in terms of letting those stay there because people at least in the third quarter, exercise some of those and provided additional capital to the company that quite honestly, we had not been projecting that or planning on it, but it's there. It's a positive thing to have.

[Operator Instructions] At this time, there are no further questions. I'd now like to turn the call back over to John Hopkins for closing remarks.

Thank you, operator. It greatly appreciative for everybody attending and the questions as well. I got a couple more days here at COP 27, I got 2 more presentations. And I'll stay there. I was at COP 26, and I mentioned last quarter I felt we had a seat at the table. I can tell you the interest where NuScale has 6 speaking opportunities here, COP 27. And it's been a lot of interest, driven heavily by obviously climate disruption but also energy security. Also a lot of discussion, as I stated earlier, about hydrogen production. And how do you get it to scale, fertilizers like Romania. Also another key component that has been discussed here is the fact that NuScale via the NRC now has emergency site boundary at the essentially the fence line of the plant. This is the first for industry, and there's no other nuclear power plant. We're also, if you think about what we're talking about on coal refurbishment as these power plants come offline, population density has increased and there's a significant cost to be able to say that we can do it at site boundary. So with that, I'd like to say thank you very much. We appreciate it. Until next time.

This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.