Advanced fission power company, Oklo Inc., and multinational technology company, Meta Platforms, Inc., are partnering to establish a 1.2 GW power campus on the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, known as PORTS, in Pike County.
The power campus will be composed of a network of facilities producing nuclear power, stretching 206 acres of land and will be built to support the region's Meta data centers, according to an Oklo press release. Pre-construction and site characterization in Piketon are expected to begin this year.
The first phase of the project, expected in 2030, will build two powerhouses and then increase production incrementally until the full 1.2 GW goal is reached around 2034.
Oklo purchased the land located off of U.S. Highway 23 for nearly $5.15 million, according to Pike County property records.
Bonita Chester, head of communications and media for Oklo, discussed a new feature, which is commercializing known as fast reactor technology, which uses fast-moving neutrons to make better use of nuclear fuel.
Each powerhouse will require around 35 permanent jobs and then an additional 16 jobs per unit for routine administration and technical engineering. The complete project is expected to eventually provide thousands of jobs for the community, according to Chester.
Chester commented on the importance of the Piketon location and why the project will benefit the local community.
“Because of the work there,” Chester said. “The workforce and the infrastructure is there, and so we are excited to be bringing in the new jobs, a new energy infrastructure and really looking to re-energize this location.”
Kevin Shoemaker, legal counsel for the Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative, said a concern many residents shared was the safety of nuclear production. He discussed how Oklo, Meta and SODI will ensure the enrichment and utilization of uranium is safe.
“There's going to be a plan in place to ensure that the waste is being managed,” Chester said. “It’s also a part of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission pathway that we have to have a waste disposal plan, so we will make sure all of that is in place.”
Shoemaker also discussed the new projects being developed in the area, which will be important for the region and its future development.
“We recognize that this is not the nuclear activities of the past, and we recognize that Ohio will have to regulate these things, as well as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, so we feel pretty comfortable that there is going to have to be some stringent guidelines that they are going to have to follow before they can actually operate there at the site,” Shoemaker said.
Prior to current energy projects, PORTS was a pivotal source of nuclear energy for the U.S. government.
PORTS began production in 1952. Rooted in the Cold War, the Atomic Energy Commission established the 3,700-plus acre site to expand production of enriched uranium nationwide.
During the 1960s, PORTS was focused on enriching uranium for commercial use in nuclear power plants, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. That process was given to Centrus Energy in 1993, which produced low-enriched uranium until 2001.
Centrus returned PORTS to the DOE for decontamination and decommissioning of the sites. The site has since been undergoing a process of environmental cleanup to prepare for future projects.
In 2011, the DOE partnered with the Ohio University Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs and the Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative to analyze what the public wanted the future use of PORTS to be, according to SODI.
The 15-month process involved talks with residents, businesses, nonprofits, government officials and more within Pike County, Scioto County, Ross County and Jackson County.
