Coming up we’ll check in with some farm families about their surprising amount corn crop this year.
But first, the Curators of the University of Missouri received a $1.8 million federal grant that will support research related to the production of small nuclear reactors at Ameren’s Callaway County plant in Fulton. MU recently announced its partnership with Ameren Missouri and Westinghouse Electric, Co on this project. Even with the potential job creation, there are negatives to the potential production and not everyone is happy about the university receiving the grant. Safe Energy Director with the Missouri Coalition for the Environment Ed Smith says the risks that come with nuclear power and the waste it produces isn’t worth it.
“Federal money going to programs that support nuclear power while the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is still working to figure out how to store high-level nuclear waste from nuclear power plants seems very ill-conceived," he says.
Last year, Ameren Missouri and Westinghouse were denied federal funding from the US Department of Energy for the project to build the reactors in Missouri that could have provided hundreds of millions of dollars to the project. Smith was happy Ameren didn’t receive the funding last year. Meanwhile, Senator Claire McCaskill said in a press release she is in full support of the production of the reactors and believes the grant to the university will provide the state with opportunities and resources that can lead to job creation.
Columbia’s downtown leadership council is seeking solutions for parking problems in Columbia. KBIA’s Kyle Jacoby reports.
Harvest season is in full swing across the Midwest. And one year after the worst drought in decades, farm families are preparing to bring in a record-breaking corn crop. As Grant Gerlock of Harvest Public Media reports there’s some uncertainty in the air with falling corn prices but this is a time of year when farm families focus on the task at hand.
