) , as well as water-cooled research reactors . we have obtained patent validation in key countries and will continue to seek patent validation in countries that either currently operate or are expected to build and operate a large number of nuclear power reactors compatible with our fuel technology . 51 we currently expect to invest a total of $ 1.0 million to $ 1.5 million in the research and development of our nuclear fuel over the next 12 to 15 months . we have incurred net losses and negative cash flows from operations and expect this to continue for the foreseeable future . in 2021 , we will continue to evaluate spending to reduce expenses with the overall goal of commercializing our fuel with the lowest r & d cost , in order to maximize our shareholders ' value . our only source of funding in 2020 was our at-the-market ( atm ) financing arrangement with stifel , nicolaus & company . we are not currently utilizing this atm facility but the atm facility is expected to be a significant source of working capital for the company sometime later in 2021. there is no assurance that an atm financing arrangement will be available to us in the future . please see note 10. stockholders ' equity and stock-based compensation of the notes to the consolidated financial statements included in part ii . item 8. financial statements and supplementary data , of this annual report on form 10-k for information regarding our atm and prior financings . fuel development strategy lightbridge originally focused on existing u.s. pwrs because they represented a large market segment for which lightbridge fuel could provide significant economic and safety benefits through a power uprate up to 10 % along with an operating cycle extension from 18 to 24 months or a power uprate of 17 % without extending the cycle length . however , with technological advances towards smrs , the escalating costs associated with new build reactors , along with the need to operate these large reactors at a constant 24/7 pace to approach profitability , we estimate that these older types of large reactors will decrease in utilization going forward . in fact , we expect the net worldwide growth in the number of large reactors between now and 2050 to be fewer than 200 , compared with the approximately 440 operable reactors worldwide . emerging nuclear technologies that many in the industry believe have the potential to generate massive amounts of power include the smrs now in the development and licensing phase . we expect that lightbridge fuel may provide smrs all the benefits our technology brings to large reactors , but the benefits may be more meaningful to the economic case for deploying smrs . lightbridge fuel is expected to generate more power in smrs than traditional nuclear fuels , which will help decarbonize sectors that are now powered by electricity . we also plan to explore using lightbridge fuel in new smrs to produce hydrogen for liquid non-carbon fuels for use in other , hard-to-decarbonize sectors such as aviation and shipping . our ongoing research and development ( r & d ) initiatives are entirely compatible with lightbridge fuel powering smrs for multiple purposes . we believe we are seeing an overall shift in focus by government and the private sector from large pwrs to smrs and other advanced reactor technologies . as a result , we intend to increase our focus on opportunities that are likely to attract financing , both currently and in the future . the first smrs that could use our fuel are expected to begin operations in 2029. our fuel development strategy , which focuses on smrs , includes several major development activities or key steps . in certain cases , it may be possible to conduct development work relating to multiple key steps in parallel , resulting in some overlap in timelines between two or more such major development activities . for example , the core of an smr can serve as a testbed for lightbridge fuel , without the necessity of new test loops in the atr , as discussed below . additional government funding expected to be directed towards the development of smrs has the potential to reduce the amount of funding lightbridge would need to raise on its own for its fuel development efforts . we anticipate that the improved competitive position of lightbridge fuel versus accident tolerant fuels ( atf ) in the smr market segment , with government support , would generate sustainable economic benefits , including the 30 % power uprates achieved with lightbridge fuel . 52 for a typical power system , base load power is usually about 35-40 percent of the maximum load during the year . demand spikes are handled by intermediate and then peak power plants . base load power plants include coal and nuclear facilities due to low fuel costs and steady power production . in some regions , geothermal and hydro can also be used as base load power . intermediate plants include natural gas , and some peak plants run on light oil . we see the push for clean energy , particularly renewables , changing this structure fairly rapidly . the existing plant structure is being replaced by wind and solar power backed up by other power , usually natural gas , when the sun is not shining or the wind is not blowing . to replace the carbon-emitting natural gas plants with something non-emitting and economical , to balance with renewables , is one of the greatest challenges in decarbonizing the energy supply . we are designing lightbridge fuel for use in smrs to combine with renewables globally to decarbonize the energy supply , with smrs providing base load power with high interoperability with intermittent renewables . story_separator_special_tag 57 during the year ended december 31 , 2020 , the company did not provide additional equity contributions or share in any loss in enfission . the company had not separately guaranteed any obligations of enfission at december 31 , 2020 and december 31 , 2019 and is not obligated under the joint venture operating agreement to fund its deficit capital account balance in enfission to pay for any liabilities incurred by enfission and therefore did not record its share of loss in enfission for the year ended december 31 , 2020. other income there was a decrease in other income of approximately $ 0.3 million due to a decrease in interest income generated from the interest earned from the purchase of treasury bills and from our bank savings account for the year ended december 31 , 2020 , as compared to the year ended december 31 , 2019. provision for income taxes on march 27 , 2020 , the coronavirus aid , relief , and economic security act ( cares act ) was enacted in response to the covid-19 pandemic . the cares act , among other things , permits net operating loss ( nol ) carryovers and carrybacks to offset 100 % of taxable income for taxable years beginning before 2021. in addition , the cares act allows nols incurred in 2018 , 2019 , and 2020 to be carried back to each of the five preceding taxable years to generate a refund of previously paid income taxes . the company has evaluated the impact of the cares act and does not expect that the nol carryback provision of the cares act will result in a material cash benefit . we incurred a pre-tax net loss for both 2020 and 2019. we reviewed all sources of income for purposes of recognizing the deferred tax assets and concluded a full valuation allowance for 2020 and 2019 was necessary . therefore , we did not have a provision for taxes for both years ended december 31 , 2020 and 2019. see note 9. income taxes of the notes to our consolidated financial statements included in part ii . item 8. financial statements and supplementary data , of this annual report on form 10-k for information regarding our income taxes . liquidity , capital resources and financial position story_separator_special_tag tr > · strategic investment and u.s. government funding to support the remaining r & d activities required to continue the development of our fuel products and move them to a commercial stage . in support of our long-term business with respect to our fuel technology business , we endeavor to create strategic alliances with other parties during the next three years , to support the remaining r & d activities that is required to further enhance and complete the development of our fuel products to a commercial stage . we may be unable to form such strategic alliances on terms acceptable to us or at all . see note 10. stockholders ' equity and stock-based compensation of the notes to the consolidated financial statements included in part ii . item 8. financial statements and supplementary data , of this annual report on form 10-k for information regarding our prior financings . the following table provides detailed information about our net cash flows for the years ended december 31 , 2020 and 2019 : cash flow replace_table_token_10_th operating activities our primary uses of cash from our operating activities include employee compensation and related costs , payments for professional and consulting fees and other fees relating to the arbitration matter with framatome . the increase in our cash used in operating activities in 2020 of approximately $ 1.9 million was primarily due to the net increase in these and other costs and the change in working capital items as explained below . cash used in operating activities for the year ended december 31 , 2020 consisted of a net loss of approximately $ 14.4 million and adjustments to our net loss for non-cash expense items totaling approximately $ 1.4 million , consisting of non-cash adjustments for stock-based compensation of approximately $ 0.1 million , the total impairment loss and write-off of patent costs of approximately $ 1.2 million and amortization of patent costs of approximately $ 0.1 million . total cash provided by operating working capital totaled approximately $ 4.4 million , which was primarily due to a net increase in accrued legal settlement costs and other accrued liabilities of $ 4.1 million , a decrease of $ 0.4 million in other receivables from the enfission joint venture , offset by and an increase in prepaid expense and other assets of $ 0.1 million . 60 investing activities net cash used in our investing activities for the year ended december 31 , 2020 , as compared to net cash used in our investing activities in 2019 , decreased by approximately $ 3.6 million . the decrease was due primarily to the reduced investment in the enfission joint venture of approximately $ 3.6 million . the spending for patent application costs was approximately the same for the years ended december 31 , 2020 and 2019. these patent applications are filed for new developments resulting from our r & d activities . we anticipate patent costs to continue in the future periods due to the continuing r & d work we are planning to perform on our all-metal fuel design at the doe 's national laboratories . we anticipate future patent costs to be expensed in future periods , which is due to the uncertainties in the current fuel development timelines and the patents being commercialized . future patent costs will become part of cash flows used in operating activities in future reporting periods . financing activities net cash provided by our financing activities for the year ended december 31 , 2020 , as compared to net cash provided by our financing activities for the year ended december 31 , 2019 increased by approximately $

liquidity outlook while the company 's cash balance at december 31 , 2020 exceeds its currently budgeted expenditures through the first quarter of 2022 , there are inherent uncertainties in forecasting future expenditures , especially forecasting for uncertainties such as future r & d costs and how covid-19 may affect future costs and operations . we reduced our 2020 operating budgets for discretionary spending , including revising our r & d strategy which reduced our r & d costs in 2020 during this transitionary period of planning future r & d work with the united states national labs . while the impact and duration of covid-19 on our business activities in the future is currently uncertain , the situation required us to reduce our operating budgets and r & d activities during 2020. at december 31 , 2020 , we had cash and cash equivalents of approximately $ 21.5 million , as compared to approximately $ 18.0 million at december 31 , 2019 , an increase of approximately $ 3.5 million . the cash inflow of approximately $ 12.3 million resulted from net proceeds from the sale of common stock during the year ended december 31 , 2020. this cash inflow was offset by net cash used in operating activities of approximately $ 8.6 million and $ 0.2 million used in investing activities associated with incurring patent legal and filing costs . 58 we have approximately $ 16 million of working capital as of the date of this filing , which includes the $ 4.2 million settlement payment made to framatome . we currently project a negative cash flow from our current operations averaging approximately $ 0.8 million per month for our general and administrative and r & d expenses , for total expected expenditures of approximately $ 9 million to $ 10 million for the next 12 to 15 months . we believe that our current working capital exceeds our budgeted expenditures through the first quarter of 2022. however , there are inherent uncertainties in forecasting future required r & d expenditures , as we are currently working on establishing our first fuel development agreements with the doe 's national laboratories .


 Write a concise suspicious activity report of the following text delimited by triple backquotes. Return your response as a formal report which covers the key points highlighting the location,dates,entity names and account holder information in chronological order of the text.
     ```liquidity outlook while the company 's cash balance at december 31 , 2020 exceeds its currently budgeted expenditures through the first quarter of 2022 , there are inherent uncertainties in forecasting future expenditures , especially forecasting for uncertainties such as future r & d costs and how covid-19 may affect future costs and operations . we reduced our 2020 operating budgets for discretionary spending , including revising our r & d strategy which reduced our r & d costs in 2020 during this transitionary period of planning future r & d work with the united states national labs . while the impact and duration of covid-19 on our business activities in the future is currently uncertain , the situation required us to reduce our operating budgets and r & d activities during 2020. at december 31 , 2020 , we had cash and cash equivalents of approximately $ 21.5 million , as compared to approximately $ 18.0 million at december 31 , 2019 , an increase of approximately $ 3.5 million . the cash inflow of approximately $ 12.3 million resulted from net proceeds from the sale of common stock during the year ended december 31 , 2020. this cash inflow was offset by net cash used in operating activities of approximately $ 8.6 million and $ 0.2 million used in investing activities associated with incurring patent legal and filing costs . 58 we have approximately $ 16 million of working capital as of the date of this filing , which includes the $ 4.2 million settlement payment made to framatome . we currently project a negative cash flow from our current operations averaging approximately $ 0.8 million per month for our general and administrative and r & d expenses , for total expected expenditures of approximately $ 9 million to $ 10 million for the next 12 to 15 months . we believe that our current working capital exceeds our budgeted expenditures through the first quarter of 2022. however , there are inherent uncertainties in forecasting future required r & d expenditures , as we are currently working on establishing our first fuel development agreements with the doe 's national laboratories .
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 Suspicious Activity Report : ) , as well as water-cooled research reactors . we have obtained patent validation in key countries and will continue to seek patent validation in countries that either currently operate or are expected to build and operate a large number of nuclear power reactors compatible with our fuel technology . 51 we currently expect to invest a total of $ 1.0 million to $ 1.5 million in the research and development of our nuclear fuel over the next 12 to 15 months . we have incurred net losses and negative cash flows from operations and expect this to continue for the foreseeable future . in 2021 , we will continue to evaluate spending to reduce expenses with the overall goal of commercializing our fuel with the lowest r & d cost , in order to maximize our shareholders ' value . our only source of funding in 2020 was our at-the-market ( atm ) financing arrangement with stifel , nicolaus & company . we are not currently utilizing this atm facility but the atm facility is expected to be a significant source of working capital for the company sometime later in 2021. there is no assurance that an atm financing arrangement will be available to us in the future . please see note 10. stockholders ' equity and stock-based compensation of the notes to the consolidated financial statements included in part ii . item 8. financial statements and supplementary data , of this annual report on form 10-k for information regarding our atm and prior financings . fuel development strategy lightbridge originally focused on existing u.s. pwrs because they represented a large market segment for which lightbridge fuel could provide significant economic and safety benefits through a power uprate up to 10 % along with an operating cycle extension from 18 to 24 months or a power uprate of 17 % without extending the cycle length . however , with technological advances towards smrs , the escalating costs associated with new build reactors , along with the need to operate these large reactors at a constant 24/7 pace to approach profitability , we estimate that these older types of large reactors will decrease in utilization going forward . in fact , we expect the net worldwide growth in the number of large reactors between now and 2050 to be fewer than 200 , compared with the approximately 440 operable reactors worldwide . emerging nuclear technologies that many in the industry believe have the potential to generate massive amounts of power include the smrs now in the development and licensing phase . we expect that lightbridge fuel may provide smrs all the benefits our technology brings to large reactors , but the benefits may be more meaningful to the economic case for deploying smrs . lightbridge fuel is expected to generate more power in smrs than traditional nuclear fuels , which will help decarbonize sectors that are now powered by electricity . we also plan to explore using lightbridge fuel in new smrs to produce hydrogen for liquid non-carbon fuels for use in other , hard-to-decarbonize sectors such as aviation and shipping . our ongoing research and development ( r & d ) initiatives are entirely compatible with lightbridge fuel powering smrs for multiple purposes . we believe we are seeing an overall shift in focus by government and the private sector from large pwrs to smrs and other advanced reactor technologies . as a result , we intend to increase our focus on opportunities that are likely to attract financing , both currently and in the future . the first smrs that could use our fuel are expected to begin operations in 2029. our fuel development strategy , which focuses on smrs , includes several major development activities or key steps . in certain cases , it may be possible to conduct development work relating to multiple key steps in parallel , resulting in some overlap in timelines between two or more such major development activities . for example , the core of an smr can serve as a testbed for lightbridge fuel , without the necessity of new test loops in the atr , as discussed below . additional government funding expected to be directed towards the development of smrs has the potential to reduce the amount of funding lightbridge would need to raise on its own for its fuel development efforts . we anticipate that the improved competitive position of lightbridge fuel versus accident tolerant fuels ( atf ) in the smr market segment , with government support , would generate sustainable economic benefits , including the 30 % power uprates achieved with lightbridge fuel . 52 for a typical power system , base load power is usually about 35-40 percent of the maximum load during the year . demand spikes are handled by intermediate and then peak power plants . base load power plants include coal and nuclear facilities due to low fuel costs and steady power production . in some regions , geothermal and hydro can also be used as base load power . intermediate plants include natural gas , and some peak plants run on light oil . we see the push for clean energy , particularly renewables , changing this structure fairly rapidly . the existing plant structure is being replaced by wind and solar power backed up by other power , usually natural gas , when the sun is not shining or the wind is not blowing . to replace the carbon-emitting natural gas plants with something non-emitting and economical , to balance with renewables , is one of the greatest challenges in decarbonizing the energy supply . we are designing lightbridge fuel for use in smrs to combine with renewables globally to decarbonize the energy supply , with smrs providing base load power with high interoperability with intermittent renewables . story_separator_special_tag 57 during the year ended december 31 , 2020 , the company did not provide additional equity contributions or share in any loss in enfission . the company had not separately guaranteed any obligations of enfission at december 31 , 2020 and december 31 , 2019 and is not obligated under the joint venture operating agreement to fund its deficit capital account balance in enfission to pay for any liabilities incurred by enfission and therefore did not record its share of loss in enfission for the year ended december 31 , 2020. other income there was a decrease in other income of approximately $ 0.3 million due to a decrease in interest income generated from the interest earned from the purchase of treasury bills and from our bank savings account for the year ended december 31 , 2020 , as compared to the year ended december 31 , 2019. provision for income taxes on march 27 , 2020 , the coronavirus aid , relief , and economic security act ( cares act ) was enacted in response to the covid-19 pandemic . the cares act , among other things , permits net operating loss ( nol ) carryovers and carrybacks to offset 100 % of taxable income for taxable years beginning before 2021. in addition , the cares act allows nols incurred in 2018 , 2019 , and 2020 to be carried back to each of the five preceding taxable years to generate a refund of previously paid income taxes . the company has evaluated the impact of the cares act and does not expect that the nol carryback provision of the cares act will result in a material cash benefit . we incurred a pre-tax net loss for both 2020 and 2019. we reviewed all sources of income for purposes of recognizing the deferred tax assets and concluded a full valuation allowance for 2020 and 2019 was necessary . therefore , we did not have a provision for taxes for both years ended december 31 , 2020 and 2019. see note 9. income taxes of the notes to our consolidated financial statements included in part ii . item 8. financial statements and supplementary data , of this annual report on form 10-k for information regarding our income taxes . liquidity , capital resources and financial position story_separator_special_tag tr > · strategic investment and u.s. government funding to support the remaining r & d activities required to continue the development of our fuel products and move them to a commercial stage . in support of our long-term business with respect to our fuel technology business , we endeavor to create strategic alliances with other parties during the next three years , to support the remaining r & d activities that is required to further enhance and complete the development of our fuel products to a commercial stage . we may be unable to form such strategic alliances on terms acceptable to us or at all . see note 10. stockholders ' equity and stock-based compensation of the notes to the consolidated financial statements included in part ii . item 8. financial statements and supplementary data , of this annual report on form 10-k for information regarding our prior financings . the following table provides detailed information about our net cash flows for the years ended december 31 , 2020 and 2019 : cash flow replace_table_token_10_th operating activities our primary uses of cash from our operating activities include employee compensation and related costs , payments for professional and consulting fees and other fees relating to the arbitration matter with framatome . the increase in our cash used in operating activities in 2020 of approximately $ 1.9 million was primarily due to the net increase in these and other costs and the change in working capital items as explained below . cash used in operating activities for the year ended december 31 , 2020 consisted of a net loss of approximately $ 14.4 million and adjustments to our net loss for non-cash expense items totaling approximately $ 1.4 million , consisting of non-cash adjustments for stock-based compensation of approximately $ 0.1 million , the total impairment loss and write-off of patent costs of approximately $ 1.2 million and amortization of patent costs of approximately $ 0.1 million . total cash provided by operating working capital totaled approximately $ 4.4 million , which was primarily due to a net increase in accrued legal settlement costs and other accrued liabilities of $ 4.1 million , a decrease of $ 0.4 million in other receivables from the enfission joint venture , offset by and an increase in prepaid expense and other assets of $ 0.1 million . 60 investing activities net cash used in our investing activities for the year ended december 31 , 2020 , as compared to net cash used in our investing activities in 2019 , decreased by approximately $ 3.6 million . the decrease was due primarily to the reduced investment in the enfission joint venture of approximately $ 3.6 million . the spending for patent application costs was approximately the same for the years ended december 31 , 2020 and 2019. these patent applications are filed for new developments resulting from our r & d activities . we anticipate patent costs to continue in the future periods due to the continuing r & d work we are planning to perform on our all-metal fuel design at the doe 's national laboratories . we anticipate future patent costs to be expensed in future periods , which is due to the uncertainties in the current fuel development timelines and the patents being commercialized . future patent costs will become part of cash flows used in operating activities in future reporting periods . financing activities net cash provided by our financing activities for the year ended december 31 , 2020 , as compared to net cash provided by our financing activities for the year ended december 31 , 2019 increased by approximately $

