Ameren, Westinghouse visit MU to talk nuclear project
Ameren Missouri and Westinghouse Electric Co. are meeting on the University of Missouri campus today to begin discussing how the university’s engineering resources can help the companies secure a federal grant.
The afternoon session starts with a working lunch featuring remarks from MU administrators followed by a series of presentations about the College of Engineering, radiochemistry capabilities at MU and a tour of the MU Research Reactor. Sudarshan Loyalka, a curators’ professor in the Nuclear Science and Engineering Institute, also will present information about small modular reactors and related research at the institute.
Ameren and Westinghouse in April said they would seek as much as $452 million in U.S. Department of Energy funding to design and build small modular nuclear reactors at Ameren’s Fulton plant.
Because the meeting involves private companies, it is not open to the public, nor are reporters allowed to attend. Today’s group does not report to a public governing body, so closing it is allowed under the state’s Open Meetings and Records Law, said Jean Maneke, a Sunshine Law attorney for the Missouri Press Association.
The university has a media policy that requires any event, regardless of whether it’s sponsored by a private entity, to be open to media as long as the general public, students or faculty are invited. Chancellor Brady Deaton drafted that policy after a keynote speaker at a Trulaske College of Business forum in 2009 requested that reporters not be allowed.
In this instance, only invited university personnel and representatives from the two companies are attending, meaning it is not open to the public, general faculty or other groups, spokeswoman Mary Jo Banken said.
MU spokesman Christian Basi said Ameren and Westinghouse representatives are expected to discuss how the university might be able to assist with the process of designing and building small modular nuclear reactors.
“We’re very pleased that Ameren and Westinghouse are exploring MU’s capabilities, but we are unable to speculate on any further action that might be taken at this time,” he said. “We need to be able to carefully explore detailed technical ways in which public and private partnerships may be of value to all of us.”
The meeting comes on the heels of backlash over MU’s decision to close the Nuclear Science and Engineering Institute after the last student graduates. Some Ameren employees expressed concerns that changing the structure of nuclear engineering might hurt MU’s chances of being involved in the reactor project. But the company’s CEO, Warner Baxter, wrote a letter to the UM System last month supporting the changes and ensuring that the university will be an “important strategic partner” in the grant process.
Ameren and Westinghouse officials also are working with faculty at Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla.
-Janese Silvey
