Photo Date: 1983
Photo Number: 084 081 001
The Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant is located in south central Ohio, approximately 32 kilometers (20 miles) north of Portsmouth, Ohio, and 112 kilometers (70 miles) south of Columbus, Ohio. The site is situated on a 1,483-hectare (3,708-acre) federal reservation
approximately 6.5 kilometers (4 miles) south of the Village of Piketon. Construction of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant began in late 1952 to expand the Federal Government's gaseous diffusion program already in place at Oak Ridge, Tennessee and Paducah, Kentucky. The facility was built to increase the production of enriched uranium at rates substantially above the other two facilities because highly-enriched uranium was required for use in nuclear submarine reactors, and low-enriched uranium was needed for commercial nuclear power plants. The first process cell went online in September 1954. A gas centrifuge uranium enrichment program was initiated in the early 1980s at Portsmouth. However, full operation was never implemented for the centrifuge process. Since 1991, the plant has produced only low-enriched uranium for use as fuel in commercial nuclear power plants.
Created by John Pike
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Updated Tuesday, December 30, 1997 10:19:25 AM