As of 2006, the university was holding discussions with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission about construction of a new High-Temperature Teaching and Test Reactor which, if successful, would finish licensing and construction around 2012. It would also be the first university based research reactor to be built in the US in roughly a decade, and one of the few HTGR type reactors in the world. In late November in 2016 the city of Odessa granted site permission. That was the first step in official authorization.