Dedicated students, distinguished colleagues and dear friends,

Happy Friday!

This week, Missouri S&T and Idaho National Laboratory (INL) signed a partnership agreement, the SUPER agreement, that allows S&T and INL to “explore deeper research collaborations and expand opportunities for students, faculty members and researchers.” This memorandum of understanding between S&T and the premier Department of Energy laboratory for peaceful applications of nuclear energy could not have come at a more opportune time. 

Given the resurgence of national interest in nuclear energy and federal plans to reinvigorate the U.S. nuclear sector, our INL/S&T collaboration promises to be a win-win all around. At the state and local levels, Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe signed an executive order establishing the Advanced Nuclear Energy Task Force to promote nuclear energy development in Missouri.

Here at S&T, enrollment in our nuclear engineering and radiation science program has nearly tripled in the last five years, and the number of applications continues to grow at a higher rate than any other of our engineering disciplines. As a result, we are at the planning stages of expanding our nuclear energy facilities, capabilities and research collaborations. To accommodate the experiential learning needs of our growing nuclear engineering enrollment, we will enhance our existing research spaces, including our 200-kilowatt nuclear reactor and add a reactor simulator. The first in the state of Missouri, our existing reactor came online in 1961 to support our then-new nuclear engineering program, one of the first in the nation. Offering BS, MS and Ph.D. degrees in nuclear engineering and radiation science, all levels of the program’s students receive hands-on research experience working with the uranium-fueled reactor as student operators before graduating.

Meeting the industry’s growing workforce needs is challenging. To provide context, compare the retirement rate of 900 per year among the workforce of 15,400 nuclear engineers with the graduation rate of fewer than 500 engineers per year across all existing nuclear engineering programs in the country. At the same time, consider the doubling or tripling of the nation’s electricity needs based on today’s consumption of nearly 4.5 trillion kWh. Our planned enhancements will help address the critical workforce development needs of the nuclear sector and radiation science industries that are on a rapid rise. The strong demand for electricity is mainly driven by continued popularity and demand for electric vehicles, rising industrial use of electricity, and expansion of data centers and high-performance computing. 

In the area of energy research, Missouri S&T has long been home to one of the nation’s most diverse energy-focused research portfolios. In 2023, S&T took steps to accelerate energy innovation from laboratories to the marketplace with an energy technology incubator. In the areas of nuclear engineering and radiation science, S&T faculty are studying several areas, including nuclear materials, nuclear reactor thermal hydraulics, nano radioisotopes for health care, medical imaging and computational reactor physics. S&T researchers also collaborate with industry leaders to optimize the design and development of newer nuclear technologies, like small modular reactors (SMRs) and microreactors, which might help fuel a more sustainable energy future. In fact, as part of our planned Powerplex initiative, we are working with several SMR manufacturers to study the feasibility of implementing a 5-10 MWe SMR on campus and, ultimately, a 150 MWe SMR to supply electricity to the city of Rolla and beyond.

It is fair to say that we’re at the beginning of a nuclear energy renaissance and, here at S&T, we plan to be part of the solution in addressing the growing energy needs of the future. And, as always, we look forward to working with others on this exciting new journey to progress and continue providing crucial contributions to critical challenges.

Warmly,

-Mo.
 
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Check out the latest news from S&T:

• Missouri S&T, Idaho National Laboratory sign SUPER-powered research agreement
• U.S. News: Missouri S&T remains state’s top public grad school for engineering
• Morgan Luebbering earns teaching award

Mohammad Dehghani, PhD
Chancellor
mo@mst.edu | 573-341-4116

206 Parker Hall, 300 West 13th Street, Rolla, MO 65409-0910
chancellor.mst.edu