Ohio leaders push Trump administration to fund nuclear uranium enrichment in Piketon

• Ohio state leaders are urging the U.S. Department of Energy to invest in Piketon, Ohio, for uranium enrichment.
• The investment could bolster domestic energy production and national security by supporting the sole American-owned uranium enrichment plant.

State leaders are pushing the U.S. Department of Energy to reach what they called “domestic energy dominance” by investing in an Ohio town.

With the department preparing to allocate money for uranium enrichment, Sen. Jon Husted, Sen, Bernie Moreno, Gov. Mike DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel all signed a letter urging energy Secretary Chris Wright to give the majority of the money to a company operating in southern Ohio.

The company — Maryland-based Centrus Energy — runs the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, which is nearly 70 miles south of Columbus. The facility is the only American-owned enrichment plant currently in operation, the officials wrote.

Funding the work in Piketon is “in America’s economic and national security interests,” the leaders wrote, as most uranium is enriched by other nations. The world’s four leading uranium enrichment operations are all foreign owned, including one in Russia, one in China, another in France and one jointly run by Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, according to the letter.

“Centrus Energy’s work in Ohio improves U.S. national security and advances American energy dominance,” the letter reads. “We urge you to boost the development of nuclear energy in the United States by funding American enrichment technology and deploying it in Ohio at a large scale.”

Redevelopment has long been eyed for the 1,200-acre site of the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Pike County, a place once made famous for producing the fuel for the nation’s nuclear weapons. The plant operated from 1954 to 2001, initially producing enriched uranium for nuclear weapons and then for commercial nuclear reactors.

Remediation of the site began in 1989 and as it was completed, land was turned over to the Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative for redevelopment.

Centrus began enriching uranium again at its Piketon plant in October 2023. It marked the first time in decades the site was again being used for nuclear development.

In 2022, 80 acres of the land for the original plant were sold to Trillium, a company that wants to build a hydrogen-fueled power plant on the site. Construction on the $1.8 billion investment could start in 2026, creating 2,100 construction jobs and 280 permanent jobs.

Oklo, a developer of small nuclear power plants, wants to build two reactors on the site. It envisions a day when it will produce electricity that could be used by Centrus Energy and Oklo, in return, would buy enriched uranium from Centrus to power its plants.

Dispatch investigative reporter Max Filby can be reached by email at mfilby@dispatch.com. Find him on X at the handle @MaxFilby or on Facebook at @ReporterMaxFilby.