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Tag: acu

ACU gets permit to build nation’s first molten salt university research reactor

September 17, 2024, 3:00PMNuclear News
Representatives from Natura Resources, the Zachry Group, Abilene Christian University, the University of Texas–Austin, Texas A&M University, and the Georgia Institute of Technology with the construction permit at NRC headquarters. (Photo: Natura Resources)

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a construction permit yesterday to Abilene Christian University, giving ACU and its partners the go-ahead to build the Molten Salt Research Reactor (MSRR) facility on its Abilene, Texas, campus. The 1-MWt research reactor is the first molten salt–fueled reactor to get a construction permit from the NRC. After Kairos Power’s Hermes, it is the second non–light water reactor construction permit issued by the NRC.

ACU opens facility designed for advanced nuclear research

September 11, 2023, 9:30AMNuclear News
ACU’s grand opening event for the Gayle and Max Dillard Science and Engineering Research Center. (Photo: ACU)

Abilene Christian University’s Gayle and Max Dillard Science and Engineering Research Center (SERC) has opened. SERC contains the Nuclear Energy eXperimental Testing Laboratory (NEXT Lab) and is the future home of one of the first advanced reactors in the United States. More than 300 people were on hand to celebrate the opening and tour the facility, including donors, government officials, and scientists from ACU and other research institutions.

Four universities team up to design molten salt research reactor

August 21, 2020, 12:11PMNuclear News

Undergraduate students work on the molten salt test loop at Abilene Christian University’s NEXT Lab. Photo: Jeremy Enlow/Steel Shutter Photography

Abilene Christian University (ACU) is leading a consortium called NEXTRA—the Nuclear Energy eXperimental Testing Research Alliance—with the Georgia Institute of Technology, Texas A&M University, and the University of Texas at Austin. NEXTRA was formed in spring 2019 to design, license, and commission a molten salt–fueled research reactor to be hosted on ACU’s campus in the central Texas city of Abilene. ACU and its partners recently announced funding of $30.5 million over the next three years from Abilene-based Natura Resources.