The University of Missouri signed an agreement today to create what they call a roadmap for building a second nuclear reactor — not for power, but to increase its production of cancer-fighting radioactive isotopes.
The NextGen MURR (MU Research Reactor) and its support infrastructures comprise of the largest capital investment in the university’s history. President Mun Choi said that investment will pay off.
“It will be stronger, it’ll be twice as large, but it’ll be purpose-built for the type of radio pharmaceutical production, which wasn’t envisioned when the first reactor was designed back about 60 years ago. And our goal is to not just build this research reactor in Columbia, but to create an ecosystem. We want to attract companies like Novartis and others to manufacture the finished product right here at Columbia using our radio pharmaceuticals, and to be able to ship it anywhere in the United States within five hours, ” Choi said after the contract signing.
The signing featured project partners, called the consortium, including: Hyundai Engineering America, the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, the Hyundai Engineering Company and American engineering firm MPR Associates for the design and licensing of the new reactor. They will be the brain trust for creating the new reactor, at this point only exchanging intellectual property. Choi and MURR leaders say current tariffs should not effect their work.
Choi said the event with fellow South Koreans was significant in his personal history, as his young parents survived the Korean War:
President Mun Chu shows off the Mizzou campus to its South Korean visitors. Consortium leader Dr. In Cheol Lim says “Consider us a part of your university.” (photo A Byrd)
“South Koreans would have lost without the strong support of President Harry Truman, Missourians and Americans and I am here today because of that support,” he said. “And we all remember growing up with the gratitude that we had for Americans. And for me to see a Korean flag fly in Jesse Hall, it’s just a tremendous feeling of gratitude and pride that I have this day.”
At the signing, Consortium leader and Executive Vice President of the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Dr. In-cheol Lim, quoted from a popular Korean poem, “The Song of April” that he said illustrates “this great moment.”
“One line says ‘the returning April lights the flame of life,” he said. “So, it’s a beautiful reminder of hope and new beginnings….the project will be the one saving and improving lives.”
Choi said without the work of the existing MURR, 460,000 Americans would not have specially-targeted cancer treatments.
Over the next six months, the consortium will collaborate with MURR staff, researchers and the university to develop a design, then as NextGen MURR Program Director Michael Hoehn II explained Wednesday, “We’re going to establish and move forward into a design and licensing phase, which where we’ll build the formal design documentation and the licensing documents that will be submitted to the regulator for approval. That process we anticipate to take anywhere from 24 to 30 months, and it’s a lengthy process, as you can imagine. Designing a reactor takes significant level detail, and we have the right partner to achieve that. So that process then will be submitted. We’ll submit our licensing application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and then here in the future, we’ll celebrate with groundbreaking and other milestones of success with all of you here today.”
The entire project will be owned by the University of Missouri and paid for by a combination of state, federal and private funding and is planned to take eight to ten years from start to finish. The first phase will cost about $10 million. Gov. Mike Kehoe has pledged to fund $50 million in state money for the expansion of the reactor.
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