The MSU Board of Trustees gave approval to sign contracts with the Department of Energy for developments to the Facility for Rare Isotopes Beams or F-RIB Project.
The Department of Energy will continue to work on the $600 million project.
Construction crews are already hard at work on the foundation of what hopes to become the facility for rare isotope beams on campus@
"From a long term project perspective, it made sense to accept the bids," said MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon.
The board set a budget of $55 million and is allowing on site work to continue.
"You look at the site right now, you will work that was approved in the spring, so that continues," said Simon.
Signing those contracts, locks in bid prices for future construction, which MSU Spokesperson Kent Cassela says is still in the distant future, but will save the university millions.
"We have to wait for the federal budget to be approved, or a continuing resolution to be signed and for the Department of Energy approval, once we have both of those, then the action by the board has already been given to proceed with the next step," said Cassella.
That step would include the construction of three new buildings that will become apart of the $600 million nuclear research facility.
"We have all indications that with pilings that are driven now and the authorization to proceed now with these next set of buildings, that the project is going to remain on track," said Cassella.
It's all part of a process that is expected to take 10 years, but the university says approval was a step in the right direction.
Read the original approval of F-RIB by the DOE here.
