Lawmakers plan bill to keep uranium plant
Medina Gazette – Ohio’s two U.S. senators plan on introducing a bill to authorize $150 million in spending to help a uranium enrichment project in southern Ohio stay afloat, after money for the project was missing from a last-minute spending bill passed on Saturday.
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.
Sens. Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman spoke with Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Saturday and agreed to sponsor bipartisan legislation to move the project forward.
The money comes from $106 million in existing Department of Energy funds, as well as $44 million in assets at Piketon in the form of “tails,” a byproduct of uranium enrichment.
“This isn’t about politics,” the senators wrote in a joint statement. “This is about national security, protecting tax-payer investments and preserving good-paying Ohio jobs.”
