United States Enrichment Corp. has completed one of the final steps in transferring the 1950s-era Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant back to the Department of Energy.
On Wednesday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced it approved USEC’s plan for the last part of the transfer and the eventual termination of the agency’s certificate of compliance for the plant.
Opened in 1954, Portsmouth produced highly enriched uranium for the military and later low-enriched uranium for commercial power plants. USEC leased the facility from DOE and produced nuclear fuel there until 2001, when the company consolidated its gaseous diffusion enrichment at a similar plant in Paducah, Ky. USEC placed the Portsmouth plant in cold standby and has served as caretaker of the facility for the DOE.
The company transferred control of the main process buildings to the government a year ago, according to an NRC release. The final transfer will put the last of the radioactive material USEC is responsible for under DOE control, ending its NRC oversight. Before that happens, the company must account for all of the nuclear material and certify that it has been transferred.
The development does not affect USEC’s Lead Cascade and American Centrifuge Plant project, also located in Piketon, Ohio.