Senators meets with Chu over USEC loan
Portsmouth Daily Times – U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Rob Portman (R-OH) met this week with U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu to discuss two pending loan guarantees. One of those is USEC’s American Centrifuge Project (ACP) at Piketon.
“I am fully committed to Piketon and the ACP. And today’s meeting reaffirmed that the Department of Energy wants them to succeed as well,” Brown said. “Secretary Chu reiterated that if USEC can deliver on its technology and finances, it will get the loan guarantee. The DOE site in Piketon has come a long way in just a few years. More than 2,500 people are working on the cleanup with more jobs on the way. With USEC’s application advancing, we are making the site the economic powerhouse it once was.”
Brown said USEC’s application for a government loan guarantee would help build state-of-the-art uranium enrichment technology at the former Department of Energy Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon. Brown said if the project is successful it could bring as many as 4,000 construction jobs and 400 long-term, full-time jobs to Piketon.
