Ohio senators want to discuss uranium-enrichment project

Associated Press

PIKETON, Ohio

Ohio’s senators want to meet with the U.S. energy secretary to promote a uranium-enrichment project in southern Ohio.

Sens. Rob Portman, a Republican from the Cincinnati area, and Cleveland Democrat Sherrod Brown recently wrote jointly to Secretary Ernest Moniz, saying they’d like to get a project progress update, discuss its future and ask how they can help the Department of Energy.

They have for years supported funding for the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, saying the enriched-uranium project is needed for national security and energy supplies. They also say the plant is important to revitalizing an economically struggling region.

Congress has funded continued research and development. The senators want to hear the long-term plans for the project, saying in their letter that it’s “too important to fail now.”