US DOE PORTSMOUTH

The PORTS facility is located near Piketon, Ohio, in the south-central portion of the state. The plant-site encompasses approximately 1000 acres of the 3,714 acre U.S. DOE reservation. The principal process at the PORTS facility is the separation of uranium isotopes via gaseous diffusion. The PORTS facility has been operating since 1954, enriching uranium for use in commercial reactors and for use by the U.S. Navy in power reactors. Production of enriched uranium for use by the U.S. Navy ceased in 1991. The production facilities are owned by U.S. DOE and have been leased by the United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC) since 1993. The enrichment operation became private in July 1998. Other portions of the site are leased to the Ohio National Guard and the Defense Logistics Agency. U.S. DOE remains the owner of the property.  USEC ceased enrichment operations at the Portsmouth site in May, 2001.  The facility has been placed into cold standby mode.  USEC currently continues its uranium enrichment shipping and transfer operations at PORTS.  

Support operations for the production of enriched uranium include the feed and withdrawal of material from the primary process, decontamination of equipment removed from the primary process, water treatment for sanitary and cooling purposes, decontamination of equipment removed from the plant for maintenance or replacement, recovery of uranium from various waste materials and treatment of sewage wastes and cooling water blow down. The construction, operation and maintenance of this facility requires the use of a wide range of commercially available chemicals. Continuous operation of this facility since 1954 has resulted in the generation of inorganic, organic and low level radioactive waste materials. 

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