Energy Department announces funding Ohio uranium plant

The Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, which once enriched uranium for weapons and nuclear fuel, and closed in 2001, in Piketon, Ohio.

PIKETON, Ohio— President Barack Obama's administration is making sure that work will continue to develop and test a southern Ohio plant that would enrich uranium for nuclear power plants.

The U.S. Department of Energy will ensure cost-shared funding in a deal with USEC Inc. for the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon. The department said Wednesday the cooperative agreement will move critical research forward while protecting taxpayer dollars.

The $350 million project is meant to demonstrate that the uranium enrichment technology will work on a commercial basis, reducing financial risks that have held up USEC's application for a $2 billion loan guarantee for the plant.

The project has bipartisan support in Ohio, where it could create as many as 4,000 jobs in a struggling region.