Brown to DOE: Keep focus on USEC project
Portsmouth Daily Times – In a letter to go out today to David Huizenga, acting assistant secretary of Environmental Management at the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, again writes DOE of its priority with the current project at the Piketon reservation.
“As Pike County faces an unemployment rate of more than 15 percent, your efforts putting people to work today and investing in the site’s future is more important than ever,” Brown wrote in the letter. “As budgets continue to shrink, the future of the site will rely on your continued focus on maintaining the current funding streams and providing a robust Decommissioning and Decontamination, while working with the community.”
Brown wrote that under Huizenga’s predecessor’s leadership, the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PORTS) site grew its workforce to more than 2,600 people and reduced the overall timeline for the cleanup by more that two decades.
“In addition, past management and community relations grew to a new level of trust and understanding,” Brown wrote. “Today, the majority of the site has returned to DOE control and the Site Specific Advisory Board will soon begin its fourth year of service. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the cleanup has transitioned to D&D with the site contractors ramping up the cleanup in the near future.”
Brown tells Huizenga the site has many challenges from determining future reuse, to completing the worker transition, to continuing to improve on the progress the local PORTS office has made with the community.
