Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Ohio

One of three major Department of Energy nuclear complex sites in Ohio, the Diffusion Plant enriched uranium for use as fuel in power plants, nuclear submarines, and nuclear weapons. High Enrichment Uranium operations ceased in 1991, and low enrichment for commercial power plant fuel continued until 2001. The plant is operated by a private company, the United States Enrichment Corporation, with Lockheed Martin, Bechtel, and others, as subcontractors. The Portsmouth Plant retains the capability to resume uranium enrichment, if directed to do so by the Department of Energy. However most of the operations of this plant have been consolidated at its sister site, the Paducah Plant in Kentucky, the only other uranium enrichment plant in the country, also operated by USEC. Portsmouth is in cold standby and clean-up mode, but also conducts programs for the DOE and other contractors, though it no longer employs 2,500 people at its 3,700 acre site, which includes some of the largest industrial structures in the world (the built-up portion of the site covers 1,000 acres).