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(AP) -- COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) -- Gov. Jay Nixon and University of Missouri president Tim Wolfe will join utility executives and business leaders at an event designed to boost support for building small modular nuclear reactors in the state.

The event at 1:30p.m. today on the Columbia campus is billed as an economic development summit, while officials await word on a U.S. Department of Energy grant application.

Westinghouse Electric Co. and Ameren Missouri are competing for a share of the $452 million the energy department has set aside for the new technology.

Ameren wants to build and operate up to five smaller reactors in Missouri. The St. Louis-based company operates the state's only nuclear power plant in Callaway County. The federal department plans to announce its grant recipients by September.

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