Pike County and Regional Employment — Two major announcements about developments at the former Gaseous Diffusion Plant near Piketon are expected to help grow the local economy and employment numbers.
On January 6th, the U.S. Department of Energy announced a $900M task order for the American Centrifuge plant, operated by Centrus, to produce enriched uranium.
Then on January 9th, Oklo and Meta Platforms announced an agreement for a nuclear power campus to supply electricity for Meta’s data center operations.
Kevin Shoemaker is legal counsel for the Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative (SODI), a nonprofit that has been leading redevelopment efforts at the federal reservation in Pike County. I asked him to expand on the news, and you can hear him in his own words in the below video interview.
The U.S. Department of Energy announced three task orders totaling $2.7 billion on January 6th, which “expands U.S. capacity for low-enriched uranium (LEU) and jumpstarts new supply chains and innovations for high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU).”
The American Centrifuge plant, operated by Centrus Energy, is among the award recipients, with a $900M task order. Centrus had announced a multi-billion-dollar expansion in September.
Oklo Inc., an advanced nuclear technology company – and Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and more – announced a major agreement on January 9th, aimed at developing up to 1.2 gigawatts of nuclear power in Pike County.
This supports Oklo’s plans to build a large-scale nuclear power campus that would supply electricity for Meta’s growing data center operations in Ohio. Meta will prepay for power and provide funding to help Oklo.
The “Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant” was built near Piketon in the 1950s, and has been decommissioned in recent decades and is being gradually demolished. Major electrical transmission lines that powered the energy-hungry process still connect to the site.
Built on the federal reservation in the 1980s, the smaller centrifuge uranium enrichment facility harnessed newer technology that required less electrical power to produce uranium fuel. The United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC), a government company, operated that until it became the private company Centrus Energy.
Learn more about Oklo, Centrus, and changes at the former Gaseous Diffusion Plant by searching the Scioto Post.
