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Energy Department Plans $115 Million Uranium Enrichment Project In Ohio

The Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station on Lake Erie.
Ron Schwane
/
Associated Press
The Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station on Lake Erie is scheduled to shut down in 2020.

Federal officials say they plan to invest $115 million over the next three years to reopen a uranium enrichment demonstration project in Ohio.

U.S. Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) said Monday that the U.S. Department of Energy plans to invest in the former American Centrifuge Project in Piketon. The senator's release says 16 centrifuges would be installed to demonstrate the production of enriched uranium as a fuel source for advanced nuclear reactors.

The plan would require federal regulators' approval.

Portman says that the investment, if approved, could result in 60 jobs initially. He says it's "another milestone" in the effort to get the domestic uranium enrichment project running again in southern Ohio.

Portman says the Energy Department under former President Barack Obama made the decision in 2015 to end the project.