MURR expansion set back by Mo. state legislature
Spirits were high last month when a ribbon cutting was held at the University of Missouri for a $20 million, three-story, 47,000-square-foot addition, dubbed MURR West, to the MURR research reactor facilities.
The new addition was to be supported in part by the state of Missouri under H.B. 19, a $513 million spending bill for construction projects that would allocate $50 million for the planning, design, and construction of a new research reactor, dubbed NextGen West, a 20-MWt design that would be in addition to the university's current MURR 10-MWt reactor.
Set back: Unfortunately, these plans suffered a significant setback last Friday when Missouri’s House Budget Committee chair Dirk Deaton (R., 159th Dist.) chose not to bring the bill to a vote. According to state Sen. Rusty Black (R., 12th Dist.), H.B. 19 is not likely to be brought before the House again before the legislative session ends this Friday, so this move has effectively killed the bill.
According to the Missouri Independent, Deaton’s choice came as a complete surprise to House Democrats and even Senate Republicans, including Senate appropriations chair Lincoln Hough (R., 30th Dist.), who reportedly spent two hours on the Senate floor on Monday criticizing House Republican leaders.
Lack of funds: Hough and Sen. Stephen Webber (D., 19th Dist.) both highlighted the elimination of NextGen MURR funding as a great loss, speaking to the life-saving medication and research the expansion would bring. They also noted that the House, Senate, and Gov. Mike Kehoe had approved the reactor’s funding in earlier drafts of the spending bill.
Deaton cited financial concerns as the motivation for his decision, saying, “Considering what we spent in the operating [budget], I just felt like we couldn’t move forward at this time.” Other House Republicans, like John Martin of Boone County, expressed remorse over NextGen MURR being caught up in the broader block.
In response to the surprise actions of her committee peers, Rep. Betsy Fogle (D. 135th Dist.), the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, said, “I can't imagine that a lot of the majority party is walking out of the building today feeling proud that they just gutted their own projects. And I'm sure that was a difficult position for them to be in, but they should have said something.”
Still a chance? While a special session called by the governor could still lead to the passage of H.B. 19, Hough said he doesn’t plan to ask for one to be called, citing a lack of confidence in both chambers’ ability to come together on the issue.
Though the failure of the bill to pass will inevitably delay the timetable for Mizzou’s expansion, a silver lining is still clear today: neither side of the political aisle is celebrating canceled funding for new nuclear. Political happenstance and chaotic last-minute decisions may have temporarily impeded funding from going to the university, but the fact that so many in the Missouri Legislature see that as a massive loss is itself heartening news for the future of nuclear.
