University of Missouri-Columbia

In the beginning . . . a powerful vision Some 50 years ago, University of Missouri President Elmer Ellis displayed powerful vision when he appointed a committee to evaluate how a research reactor might stimulate scientific research at this land-grant institution. This was a most novel idea in the late 1950s—a nuclear reactor at a university! It was Huber O. Croft, Dean of the College of Engineering, who suggested it to President Ellis. No doubt they were responding to the US Atomic Energy Commission, created at the close of World War II to stimulate peace-time scientific research on nuclear energy for electric power generation and on its products for industrial and medical application. The committee that President Ellis appointed spent many months surveying faculty at the University as well as at the Missouri School of Mines (now UM-Rolla). They estimated costs and possibilities, met with federal and state agencies, and finally compiled a study document that was in overwhelming support of such an innovative undertaking. In a February 3, 1959 press release, President Ellis said, "New vistas of a nuclear age have touched every field of science, from agriculture to medicine, from geology to zoology, and from engineering to veterinary science, in addition to the important discoveries being made in chemistry and physics. All those fields are a part of the University of Missouri's educational responsibilities to our youth and to all our citizens. We have to move forward with the nuclear age, lest we fall hopelessly behind." Others outside the University shared Ellis' vision. In June 1959, Missouri Governor James T. Blair signed an appropriations bill to fund the project after it had been passed by the Legislature for an amount that was later supplemented under Governor Dalton's tenure. The Atomic Energy Commission issued a construction permit for the University's reactor on November 21, 1961. The University's President continued to show vision in hiring a director who chose a flexible reactor design that has allowed expansion and upgrades to accommodate increasing research needs and technological advancements. With State allocations totaling $3.4 million, construction on MURR was completed and the reactor was in operation by the Fall of 1966. President Ellis' forecast was on the mark. The MU Research Reactor currently supports the research of hundreds of faculty and students each year in dozens of disciplines and provides products and services that directly benefit the citizens of Missouri, as well as others in universities, industries and agencies worldwide. It is an outstanding university research reactor in the world in its breadth of programs, steady source of neutrons for research and industrial applications and safe and reliable operations. Elmer Ellis may not have known just how global his vision was, but hindsight confirms it. The State of Missouri mined a jewel in the University of Missouri Research Reactor.

selected MU News Releases and other relevant stories The reactor is in the process of relicensing for another 20 years of nuclear-based research, education and medical and other applications. Check here for project updates. Click here to view the presentations from the 2004 Annual Meeting of the TRTR Organization hosted by MURR October 12-15, 2004 Content Copyright © 2003-2008 The Curators of the University of Missouri DMCA and other copyright information. All rights reserved. An equal opportunity/ADA institution. If you would like more information or experience difficulty with any of these pages, please contact our web editor. Last updated August 2008