Nearly 300 full-time jobs are coming to Pike County through a major expansion of operations at Centrus Energy's uranium enrichment facility in southern Ohio.
The nuclear power producer has committed to investing $1.58 billion in its already-existing Ohio infrastructure, according to JobsOhio, the powerful private firm that pursues projects on the state鈥檚 behalf. An additional 1,000 construction workers will be needed for the project.
The American Centrifuge Plant near Piketon is the only current location in the United States where HALEU, or high-assay low-enriched uranium, is in production. HALEU is used in advanced nuclear reactors, to the U.S. Department of Energy, and is almost entirely commercially sourced from Russia right now.
As of Thursday, neither the state or JobsOhio are handing over any grants or loans for the project, although JobsOhio will be offering talent acquisition services鈥攚hich could range from candidate marketing to talent advising and sourcing to certain training services.
U.S. Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH) said a focus on talent is a must in this case.
鈥淣obody has this training, because it鈥檚 not really being done in the United States of America right now,鈥� Husted told the Statehouse News Bureau.
Federal and state officials will be in Chillicothe鈥攁bout 20 miles from Piketon鈥擳hursday morning, where Centrus will meet later with potential candidates for the new positions. There, Pixelle Specialty Solutions all production at the longtime paper mill in August, leaving more than 700 mill workers out of a job.
In August, Pike County had the second highest unemployment rate in the state, at 7.2%, while Ross County sat at 6.5%. Both were well above the Ohio unemployment rate of 4.9% and the national rate of 4.3%.
鈥淚 can imagine that when you have a workforce that is well-versed in an industrial, manufacturing setting, that鈥檚 a huge advantage for us,鈥� Centrus President and CEO Amir Vexler said. 鈥淲hen you鈥檙e hiring somebody that has worked shifts, has worked with wrenches, has had electricians on their site.鈥�
Still, Vexler said nuclear workers need extensive training, whether it's on uranium enrichment or nuclear safety. They need security clearances, too.
Centrus is already under contract with customers for its expansion, most of them existing U.S. utilities, he said.
The Portsmouth Gas Diffusion Plant, near Piketon, started enriching uranium in 1954 for the U.S. nuclear arms program, and later for commercial nuclear reactors. The former United States Enrichment Corporation shut down uranium enrichment in 2001. USEC eventually restructured and reemerged as Centrus Energy.
Two coal-fired substations, Kyger Creek in Gallia County and Clifty Creek in Indiana, were built to power the plant. At the time, they were the largest private power plants in the world.
The Ohio Valley Electric Corporation, or OVEC, substations received subsidies from electric utility customers starting in 2018 and then via the scandal-tainted in 2019. A state law in May ended those subsidies.
