WOSU News » piketon

DOE Announces $350 Million Uranium Enrichment Project in Piketon

The Associated Press — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 14:34:21 +0000

President Barack Obama’s administration is making sure that work will continue to develop and test a southern Ohio plant that would enrich uranium for nuclear power plants.

The U.S. Department of Energy will ensure cost-shared funding in a deal with USEC Inc. for the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, just south of Chillicothe.

The department said Wednesday the cooperative agreement will move critical research forward while protecting taxpayer dollars.

The $350 million project is meant to demonstrate that the uranium enrichment technology will work on a commercial basis, reducing financial risks that have held up USEC’s application for a $2 billion loan guarantee for the plant.

The project has bipartisan support in Ohio, where it could create as many as 4,000 jobs in a struggling region.

Boehner Backs Bill To Keep Alive Ohio Uranium Plant

The Associated Press — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 14:25:41 +0000

House Speaker John Boehner said he would support legislation to allow the Obama administration to spend an estimated $150 million to help a uranium enrichment project in southern Ohio move forward.

The Columbus Dispatch reports that a bill is expected to be introduced by members of the Ohio congressional delegation and could reach the House floor next month.

The Piketon plant would be at the site of a former gaseous diffusion plant that enriched uranium during the Cold War. It would produce enriched uranium for use in generating electricity at nuclear power plants.

Boehner, R-West Chester, has taken heat for not including the $150 million in a temporary spending bill. Boehner said the project would “create jobs and strengthen America’s energy security.”

Piketon Clean-Up A Step Closer

Bill Cohen — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

For nearly a decade, residents around the southern Ohio town of Piketon have been waiting for radioactive contamination around an old atomic weapons factory to be cleaned up. Now they’re finally seeing a major step forward; a company has been hired to oversee the clean-up. Ohio Public Radio’s Bill Cohen has details.

TO HEAR THIS STORY CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON ABOVE.

Experts Debate Pros And Cons Of Nuclear Energy

Sadie Taylor — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

There hasn’t been a new nuclear power plant started in the United States since the Three Mile Island Accident in 1979. And the announcement Ohio is building the first U-S nuclear plant in decades draws both opposition and praise. Harvey Wasserman of Bexley is a Senior Advisor to Greenpeace USA. He says Ohio’s two current power plants – Perry and Davis-Besse – already have questionable safety records. “Perry is the only nuclear plant in the United States to actually be damaged by an earthquake. And Davis-Besse had a Boric Acid leak that ate almost all the way through its reactor pressure vessel,” says Wasserman. But others argue that nuclear plants are very safe. Ohio State Nuclear Engineering professor Richard Denning specializes in reactor safety and risk analysis. Denning says the safety risks are negligible. “Somebody that lives within one mile of a nuclear power plant their risk is far less than 0.1% of their risk of just dying in another accident like – in particular – driving their automobile,” says Denning. Ohio gets a large portion of its electricity from coal power plants. Professor Denning points out that nuclear power produces zero carbon gas emissions – a major criticism of coal power plants. And in terms of human health, he says nuclear power is far better than coal. “If you look at the health effects of coal, they’re tremendous. I mean, historically they’ve been. If you just look at the number of people that die from emphysema – it’s a very large number, per year,” says Denning. But even though Greenpeace’s Wasserman is no fan of coal emissions, he says nuclear power is a step backward in energy policy.

“We need to get away from coal, but the answer is not to go to something worse – it’s to go to renewables and efficiencies. Getting from coal to nuclear is jumping from the frying pan into the fire,” says Wasserman. Wasserman also argues that no one has come up with an effective way to get rid of toxic waste. He points to the vigorous debate which has stalled the nuclear waste storage project in Yucca Mountain, Nevada. “After 50 years, with the abandonment of Yucca Mountain, there is still no solution to the nuclear waste problem. Why would you build a plant in a Ohio that has no where to go for its nuclear waste?” says Wasserman. But Professor Denning says toxic waste is probably the most misunderstood -and emotionally charged – issue surrounding nuclear energy. He says risk analyses indicate Yucca Mountain would be completely safe, but explains there are other options: “If it turned out that we decided we’re not going to do Yucca Mountain – this is we, being the country – then they would probably be sent to an interim storage facility until whatever is going to be done with them is going to be done with them,” says Denning.

Until 2001, the Piketon site was a uranium enrichment plant. The United States Enrichment Corporation currently operates the facility.

Southern Ohio Nuclear Plant Far From A Done Deal

Bill Cohen — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

No nuclear plant has been built in the U.S. since the 1979 partial meltdown at the 3 Mile Island Plant in Pennsylvania…..but plans were unveiled Thursday to research the possibility of building one in Southern Ohio. The proposed site is near the grounds of a former uranium-enrichment plant in Piketon. That’s where utility and government officials announced details of the project. Ohio Public Radio’s Bill Cohen was there too, and he filed this report.

Some Piketon Residents Unhappy About Nuclear Power Plant

Mandie Trimble — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Nuclear Power is drawing mixed reviews among residents of Southern Ohio Governor Strickland and other officials Thursday are expected to announce plans to build a nuclear power plant in Piketon. Some residents welcome the thousands of jobs the plant would create; others worry about the health risks.

The village of Piketon is about an hour and a half south of Columbus and was once home to a uranium enrichment plant. In the next decade or so it could be home to a nuclear power plant.

Piketon’s Mayor Billy Spencer – calling while on vacation in Canada – said he supports the plans.

“I think it’s a good deal. Certainly for Piketon, but for the whole southern part of the state,” he said.

Building the nuclear facility could take at least ten years and would employ as many as 4,000 construction workers.

Spencer said he’s not exactly sure how his constituents will react to having a nuclear power plant in their backyard – but he does not think many should be too surprised.

“We’ve had a uranium enrichment plant in our backyard since 1953,” Spenser said.

In fact Spencer and his wife both have worked at the uranium plant. The mayor for 30 years and his wife more than 20.

“I think it’s just a way of life for us down here. The enrichment plant certainly has provided good jobs, good paying jobs for a lot of folks and I don’t think there will be a lot of negative feelings about the power plant,” he said.

Life-long Piketon resident Sheila Ferrell sits outside a coin-operated laundry mat.

“When I heard about this and read about it in the paper just a few minutes ago, I thought, here we go again. What is it this time?”

Ferrell said some of her friends and even her ex-husband died from cancer. She blames the former uranium enrichment plant. Ferrell said, yes, it could bring a lot of jobs to the town, but she wonders what else it could bring.

“A lot of people have passed on because of the cancer they get from over there…you know, lung cancer, tumors, you name it. And it’s all related to that over there,” Ferrell said.

Aaron Scaff has lived in Piketon for much of his 37 years. He’s a carpenter.

“They should of cleaned this place up and moved on someplace else.”

Scaff’s not fond of a nuclear power plant in his town, and for the same reason as Ferrell. He said numerous family members have died from cancer, all but one of his mother’s nine brothers and sisters.

“And I buried my mom two years ago with cancer. (And you attribute it to the uranium?) It come from somewhere, I don’t know where, but, yeah. This it’s he nastiest water, if you drink Piketon water, take a shower in Piketon water, you know there’s something going on around here,” Scaff said.

Federal health researchers have studied cancer rates in Pike County and other parts of southern Ohio and found they are no higher than state and national averages. But the federal government has compensated uranium plant workers and their families for millions of dollars in medical costs.

Not every Piketon resident feels like Scaff and Ferrell. Gale Parsons said her husband could soon lose his job.

“I mean it’d be pretty cool if he could get another job and us wouldn’t have to move away because our family’s here,” Parsons said. And Larry Braniff, another Piketon lifer, works at Ohio Valley Electric that used to supply the electricity to the uranium enrichment plant. He said he does not buy that all the cancer in the town is linked to the uranium plant.

“That could be a good thing. Nuclear power’s a good power to have. We work with coal generation down there. So, you know, a nuclear axle power plant might be beneficial for the area for jobs and stuff like that,” Braniff said.

U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown said he’s open-minded out nuclear power. Although 20 years ago he was not convinced it was safe.

“I think there have been major strides. I’m not 100 percent sold yet, but I want to see what they’re doing,” Brown said.

If built the Piketon Nuclear Power plant would be the first plant approved after Pennsylvania’s Three -Mile Island Nuclear Accident in 1979.