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"Having agreed to compensation for Cold War era atomic energy workers who developed cancer and other illnesses, the D.O.E. and other entities of the government have been searching for a solution to nuclear waste. Nuclear power represents an alternative to fossil fuels, but solutions to the lingering radioactive half lives of elements like uranium have not been resolved. For instance, after receiving a report on the severity of the contamination (uranium, nickel and non-uranium) at the Huntington Pilot Plant / Reduction Pilot Plant, a decision was made in 1978-1979 to tear it down. The remains of the production apparatus, ( i.e. hoses), as well as the walls and girders were buried in a classified contaminated location at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio. The Portsmouth, Paducah, Oak Ridge and Huntington facilities worked both on uranium enrichment and recycling nickel from depleted uranium. Site Specific Meetings --- the next Thursday, May 6 at 6 p.m. at the OSU Endeavor Center --- are ongoing. They are part of a decision making process --- what will be placed on the site of the former gaseous diffusion plant, what will be done with waste buried there, what will be done with waste stored there? (Editor's Note: Documents have confirmed that the HPP/RPP processed nickel powder and recycled scrap uranium from barrier materials at the diffusion plants. Some distinctions exist between "enriched" uranium and "depleted" uranium. We're uncertain whether the "depleted" uranium was /is stored at diffusion plants or transported between various plants.) "

Calling it the "beginning of the beginning," Duke Energy chairman, president and CEO James Rogers Thursday officially kicked off the effort to bring 400 to 700 new permanent jobs to Piketon within roughly the next decade. Advertisement The process will be pursued by a newly created partnership whose aim is to construct a new nuclear power facility in Piketon. And while it will take a considerable amount of time to complete, officials are hopeful it will lead the way to new life in a county that is presently facing 15.1 percent unemployment and routinely ranks among the highest jobless rates in the state. "It will, I think, help revitalize the economy of this part of the state," Gov. Ted Strickland said, adding that the project would make Ohio the only state including next-generation nuclear power production in its energy portfolio.

"Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown and GOP Sen. George V. Voinovich are locking arms politically to go after federal cash to help fund the cleanup of the site of a closed uranium-enrichment plant in southern Ohio. Ohio's U.S. senators asked key members of the Senate Appropriations Committee last week to come up with all the money President Barack Obama asked for in his proposed 2011 budget for cleanup and related efforts at the Piketon site: $479million total, including $416million for direct decontamination and cleanup efforts. Voinovich is a member of the appropriations committee. This is separate from ongoing work by USEC, a private company, to try to build a commercial enrichment plant on the site. Commercial uranium-enrichment plants produce fuel for nuclear-power plants. The old Piketon plant produced fuel for nuclear-power plants before it closed in 2001, but in the Cold War, it also made weapons-grade uranium for the country's atomic-weapons program. Congress allocated $303million for the cleanup in the 2010 budget, and the Piketon cleanup got an additional $118 million from the stimulus package."

"The memories of former workers from the radioactive material processing plant in East Huntington always comes with a preface that the shared information was formerly top secret. Some describe a high chain link fence with armed security guards. Others remember armed guards overseeing the loading and unloading of product by railcar. The Huntington, WV Department of Energy plant supplied items to three gaseous diffusion plants that enriched uranium to make atomic weapons. These plants were in Piketon, Ohio (Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion); Paducah , Ky. (Paducah Gaseous Diffusion) and Oak Ridge, Tenn. (Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant). These three plants enriched uranium in a mile-long system of pipes, ducts, chambers , motors and electrical lines. The sublimed crystalline gaseous and greenish uranium flowed through nickel filters which separated isotopes. This section of the diffusion plant has been called The Cascade. ( Description courtesy of " A Pigeon in Piketon," by Geoffrey Sea, January 1, 2004 American Scholar .) "

An announcement by Duke Energy and state and federal officials about plans for Ohio's first nuclear power plant in more than 20 years is expected Thursday morning at the federal government's uranium enrichment facility in Piketon in Pike County, according to reports. Advertisement Gov. Ted Strickland, Senator George Voinovich and Rep. Jean Schmidt along with executives from several energy companies are expected to participate in an announcement about a "new clean energy partnership" at the Piketon facility, according to an advisory from USEC Inc., which operates the Piketon facility and is building a uranium enrichment facility there. The Cleveland Plain Dealer, citing unnamed sources, reported Duke Energy , which operates three nuclear plants in its North and South Carolina service areas, will announce plans to build the nuclear facility. Duke spokeswoman Johnna Reeder said Tuesday she couldn't confirm details of the announcement.

Officials say they are running out of money to build world's most efficient centrifuges at a cost of $3.5 billion. The company building the multi-billion-dollar American Centrifuge uranium enrichment plant in the south central Ohio community of Piketon has applied to the Energy Department for federal loan guarantees amidst spiraling costs. A spokeswoman for USEC Inc. declined to specify the size of the loan guarantee the Bethesda, Md., company is seeking, but the department has been authorized by Congress to issue up to $2 billion in loan guarantees for advanced facilities on the "front end" of the nuclear fuel cycle, including uranium enrichment plants.

No injuries and minor damage were reported in a Thursday fire in an inactive cooling tower at the Piketon uranium enrichment plant. Advertisement According to the Department of Energy, the fire was reported at 4:30 p.m. on the east side of the plant. At 5:15 p.m., the fire was said to have no off-site impact. The fire broke out in some decking of the cooling tower, which was being removed after high winds in Saturday's storms damaged the tower. The cooling tower is one of several at the site scheduled to be decontaminated and decommissioned in the coming months with aid from American Reinvestment and Recovery Act funds.

"Its bid for a $2 billion federal loan guarantee is still pending, but the company trying to build a $3.5 billion uranium-enrichment plant in Piketon, Ohio, will get a promised infusion of $45 million from the Department of Energy. The promise to USEC was made in August when the Energy Department turned down the loan-guarantee application, with federal officials saying they didn't think the technology had been proven commercially viable. USEC says the loan guarantee is critical to its ability to build the plant, and the company won a temporary reprieve and the ability to reapply for the loan guarantee at a later date. That reapplication is expected to happen this year. In the meantime, the $45 million will help USEC keep working on the plant's technology, and the company says it will match the federal money with $45 million of its own. The federal cash comes from the Energy Department assuming $45 million worth of depleted uranium "tails" counted on USEC's books as a liability."

"A planned uranium-enrichment plant in Idaho, not one in southern Ohio, is getting a $2 billion federal loan guarantee, the Department of Energy said today. But that doesn't mean USEC's $3.5 billion project in Piketon, which could bring hundreds of jobs to economically struggling southern Ohio, is out of the running for the federal loan guarantee. The Energy Department took pains to say, even as it was granting the $2 billion loan guarantee to the French-based Areva for its plant near Idaho Falls, that it planned to award an additional $2 billion loan guarantee. At this point, USEC is the only other company that has applied for a uranium-enrichment loan guarantee, the Energy Department confirmed. The Energy Department said the loan guarantee for Areva is contingent on the project obtaining a construction and operating license from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The project must obtain a Combined Construction and Operating License (COL) from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission before the loan guarantee can be finalized."

"The long and drawn-out process of gathering environmental and regulatory information for a building permit occupy plans for a nuclear power plant that could be in the future at the site of the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant at Piketon. The plant shut down in 2001 after nearly 50 years of turning out weapons-grade uranium. The loss of 900 jobs was felt throughout the southern Ohio communities surrounding the plant. It's been just over a year now since officials from four of the nation's biggest energy companies came together and announced formation of an alliance to pursue the development of America's first clean energy park at the site, owned by the U.S. Department of Energy. "

"Buried Remains of Huntington Pilot Plant Still Classified Portsmouth, OH (HNN) - Members of the Site Specific Decontamination & Decommissioning Subcommittee heard a proposal for "asset recovery" from various parcels of the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant. "Shall we try to preserve an asset," asked William Murphie, Manager of the Department of Energy's Portsmouth / Paducah Project Office. He referred to possible construction of a melting facility to recover metals such as nickel, copper, steel and aluminum from contaminated buildings and equipment. As explained, the contaminated items would be melted into ingots and stored on site at Piketon until final disposition decisions are made. One option would be a recycling use of the materials --- which would contain traces of radiological metals such as uranium --- for use only at Department of Energy facilities. "

The Energy Department Wednesday released the names of the 20 board members for a new advisory board at the Piketon uranium enrichment facility and set the board's first meeting The board, which will meet for the first time in September, will advise the DOE on environmental matters. Among the members are Piketon Mayor Billy Spencer and Waverly school board member Sharon Manson, Lorry Swain of the Southern Ohio Neighbors Group, Ohio University chemical engineering professor Nicholas Dinos and Shawnee State history professor Andrew Feight.

Above is a 14-minute video of an interview with sick worker Vina Colley, who was an employee at the Portsmouth/Piketon Ohio uranium enrichment and gaseous diffusion plant, now operated by United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC). Colley details her illnesses, workplace problems, her employment and her efforts to obtain medical help and monetary compensation. She is co-founder of PRESS, the Portsmouth/Piketon Residents for Environmental Safety and Security, and part of National Nuclear Workers for Justice. If you have trouble viewing the video, a lower-connection-speed version is viewable on this web page ...

The nation's only provider of enriched uranium for nuclear power plants says it will go ahead with development of a southern Ohio project even though it has been unable to attract financing in the $3.5 billion venture. USEC Inc., based in Bethesda, Md., is developing the American Centrifuge project on the site of a former gaseous diffusion plant in Piketon, about 80 miles east of Cincinnati. The centrifuge technology is considered more efficient for concentrating the fissionable uranium isotope U235.

USEC Inc. has a construction and operating license for its proposed American Centrifuge Plant, which is being demonstrated by the company at the former Atomic Plant site in Piketon. But the funding it needs to complete the $3.5 billion plant and be under production of enriched uranium fuel by 2012 to provide the growing demand by commercial nuclear power plants, remains a big question for the company. USEC still lacks a commitment on its application for up to $2 billion in federal loan guarantees for its American Centrifuge Plant (ACP). The company recently took steps to conserve cash and reduce the planned escalation of construction of the plant at the Piketon site and in the manufacture of AC 100 centrifuge machines for it.

Federal cover-up blamed for state denying workers' comp Nancy Meadows is a Cold War widow. Her husband worked at the uranium-enrichment plant near Piketon from 1955 to 1996, handling stuff that ended up in nuclear weapons. Joe Meadows and thousands of others toiled for decades amid radiation while the federal government knew -- but publicly denied -- that it was poisoning its work force. In 1999, after years of gobbling aspirin and seldom complaining, Joe Meadows died of cancer at age 60. More than two years later, federal officials admitted having exposed workers to radiation at the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant. Mrs. Meadows and other survivors of dead workers later received $150,000 each in federal compensation.

"President Barack Obama's call for a new generation of nuclear power plants could weigh on decisions about a possible new nuclear power facility at the former uranium processing reservation in Piketon. But nobody expects any significant activity soon. It's been more than six months since Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, U.S. Sen. George Voinovich, top officials from Duke Energy and other utility companies announced formation of the Southern Ohio Clean Energy Park Alliance. The informal alliance was formed to explore development of a 1,600-megawatt nuclear generating plant at a "clean energy park" that could cost more than $10 billion, take more than a decade to build and create thousands of jobs."

The U.S. Department of Energy is now looking for a company to operate two depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion facilities in Portsmouth and Paducah, Kentucky. The estimated value of the five-year contracts is $350 to $450 million. The company would oversee conversion of D-O-E's inventory of depleted uranium to a more stable chemical form acceptable for transportation, reuse, or disposal. This inventory is the so-called legacy waste from uranium enrichment that started as part of atomic bomb development by the Manhattan Project during World War Two.

USEC Inc.'s hope for a loan guarantee to complete work on the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon was given new life Tuesday. The U.S. Department of Energy announced late Tuesday afternoon that it plans to delay a review of USEC's application until several specific technical and financial issues have been addressed. Those issues had been cited in late July as reasons for DOE to request USEC withdraw its application for $2 billion in loan guarantees seen as critical to completion of the American Centrifuge Plant. The unspecified amount of additional time is intended to allow USEC to fully address issues identified by DOE relating to the readiness of the company's uranium enrichment technology. DOE indicated it sees promise in the centrifuge process, but that USEC's application for the loan guarantee does not meet all statutory and regulatory standards that would allow it to be accepted.

USEC Inc.'s hope for a loan guarantee to complete work on the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon was given new life Tuesday. The U.S. Department of Energy announced late Tuesday afternoon that it plans to delay a review of USEC's application until several specific technical and financial issues have been addressed. Those issues had been cited in late July as reasons for DOE to request USEC withdraw its application for $2 billion in loan guarantees seen as critical to completion of the American Centrifuge Plant. The unspecified amount of additional time is intended to allow USEC to fully address issues identified by DOE relating to the readiness of the company's uranium enrichment technology. DOE indicated it sees promise in the centrifuge process, but that USEC's application for the loan guarantee does not meet all statutory and regulatory standards that would allow it to be accepted.

Even as an announcement of a plan for a nuclear-power plant was celebrated last week in Piketon, Ohio, a uranium-enrichment plant project on the same site that is to begin operating by 2011 teetered on financial collapse. Announced 5 1/2 years ago with almost as much hoopla as the proposed nuclear project got last week, plans for the $3.5 billion enrichment plant could be dashed unless the Obama administration soon approves a $2 billion federal loan guarantee, says USEC, the suburban-Washington company slated to build the facility. USEC applied for the loan guarantee 10 months ago under a $38.5 billion Department of Energy program launched by the Bush administration to encourage various renewable-energy and nuclear-power ventures. An enrichment plant makes material that fuels nuclear-power plants.