PIKETON, Ohio — The U.S. Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site is moving from decades of Cold War-era cleanup into a new phase as the centerpiece of a $37 billion energy and computing hub, according to the department’s Office of Environmental Management.
Crews are now tearing down former uranium enrichment buildings on the Piketon site to clear ground for the project, which combines large-scale power generation with a planned super intelligence computing center, the agency said in a release detailing the effort.
Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Tim Walsh, who oversees the Portsmouth Site and has met with workers there, said the project is meant to turn the site’s environmental liabilities into a long-term economic asset for southern Ohio, according to the department.
The Portsmouth Site is one of three DOE properties nationally — along with sites in Paducah, Kentucky, and Oak Ridge, Tennessee — being redeveloped as what the department calls American Energy Hubs, drawing a combined $650 billion in private investment across the three locations, the release said.
DOE has framed the Piketon project as the nation’s largest energy megasite, and the agency has steadily raised the figures tied to it. Walsh toured the site in October and touted a $33 billion plan; the department now puts the investment at $37 billion.
The department said the demolition of the old Cold War buildings is intended to create career opportunities for future generations in the region as the site transitions from cleanup to reindustrialization.
The information contained in this story was obtained from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management.
