Texas A&M University’s Engineering Experimental Station (TEES) is collaborating with Houston-based start-up ZettaJoule to explore the potential construction of a nonpower research reactor at the university’s College Station campus.

The university believes that hosting ZettaJoule’s ZJ high-temperature, gas-cooled reactor might lead to as much as $1 billion worth of research collaborations, industrial partnerships, and federal funding for its College of Engineering.