University of Missouri to partner with Hyundai on new nuclear reactor
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The University of Missouri announced a new partnership Wednesday with several Korean firms to help develop its new NextGen nuclear research reactor.
The school will partner with Hyundai Engineering America, the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, the Hyundai Engineering Company and MPR Associates in a $10 million agreement to start designing and licensing the reactor. The billion-dollar project on south Columbia’s Discovery Ridge is expected to be built within the next decade.
Executive Director University of Missouri Research Reactor Matt Sanford said the new reactor will will incorporate all of the lessons learned from MURR's 59 years of operation.
"The new reactor w will be larger, more powerful and more versatile," Sanford said.
The school opened up bids in 2023 for firms to help them design the 20-megawatt nuclear research reactor. MU has emphasized its nuclear research in recent years, as it is one of the only providers of radioisotopes in the world used in many cancer screenings. Local officials have hoped the growth of the research reactor would make Columbia more attractive for economic development and medical research.
University of Missouri Present Mun Choi said the hope is for other companies to manufacture in Mid-Missouri.
"To manufacture the finished product right here in Columbia using our radio-pharmaceuticals and ship it anywhere in the United States within five hours," Choi said.
University of Missouri Board of Curators Chair Todd Graves said the project will allow Missouri to be a roadmap in playing a bigger role in critical medical isotope research and production for cancer treatments in the U.S.
"This project will be economic development for this state on this level of scientific discovery, a level of high level manufacturing that we will enjoy for many years to come," Grave said.
The project is projected to cost a billion dollars and Choi said the university already has $200 million for the project that will require state and federal funding.
Gov. Mike Kehoe dedicated $50 million in the state's budget this year to move the project forward.
President Donald Trump's tariffs are being watched closely as they continue to impact international trade.
During Wednesday's press conference, Choi said he doesn't believe the project will be impacted, for now.
"At this point we're just exchanging intellutucal property there is no physical assets that are being shipped from South Korea to the United States." Choi said. "If it does we have to be flexible to have more manufacturing done in this country but thats part of the negotiations we will have,"
MU said the NextGen MURR project will mark the Korean company’s first U.S.-based nuclear reactor project. Hyundai, though, has some experience in nuclear production, working with a firm in Michigan earlier this year to produce small modular reactors.
The bid for this phase of NextGen MURR described the reactor as a “tank-in-pool, low temperature reactor utilizing low enriched uranium.” The firms will serve as the “design authority” with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and will come up with the architecture and design services. MU also sought out project managers ahead of hiring the firms to help keep the project on task.
The university broke ground last month on an expansion of its existing nuclear reactor on Providence Road, known as MURR West, which the school says is the nation’s sole provider of lutetium-177. That plant will further expand, paid through a contract with pharmaceutical firm Novartis, where MU will deliver radioisotopes created there exclusively to Novartis.
University leaders have kept the MURR project a priority in state budget requests.
The university's current nuclear reactor, located off Providence Road has been operating for nearly 60 years. According to the university it helped 450,000 cancer patients last year across the U.S.
The reactor operates 24 hours a day, 6.5 days a week, 52 weeks a year and is the most powerful university research reactor in the U.S. working at 10 megawatts.
Once the new reactor is built, the University of Missouri will be home to two of the largest university reactors in the U.S., according university officials.
