Kurt Schaefer (courtesy of the Missouri Farm Bureau)
Missouri is revisiting nuclear energy as a key part of its energy future.
At Thursday’s Missouri Nuclear Summit in Columbia, Department of Natural Resources Director Kurt Schaefer told Missourinet the event highlighted the need for reliable power and lower emissions.
“We’re projecting to have 3% growth in energy demand every year for the next 15 or so years,” said Schaefer. “Dispatchable power is power that when you flip a switch, it delivers electricity and three methods of getting that are either coal, natural gas, or nuclear. The only option for dispatchable power that does not emit carbon is nuclear.”
Schaefer noted that nuclear had been overlooked for decades, due it takes years to get a nuclear system permitted, and the summit successfully brought it back into the broader energy conversation.
He also told Missourinet the MU Research Reactor was a key topic at summit.
“The reactor connects to decades of underused nuclear advancements, and the summit helped bring those technologies back into focus,” said Schaefer. “That’s everything from energy delivery to nuclear medicines, like the radioisotopes that are developed at the MU research reactor and not only supplied in the United States, they’re supplied all over the world to help people fight cancer.”
The MU Research Reactor is the most powerful university research reactor in the United States, operating at 10 megawatts.
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