Letter to Mr. Huizenga, Acting Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management

Letter

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) today urged the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) new Acting Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management David Huizenga to continue DOE's work to clean-up the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PORTS) in Piketon.

"A new assistant secretary at the Department of Energy should mean a renewed emphasis on completing the ongoing work at the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon," Brown said. "I look forward to continuing to work with the Office of Environmental Management to ensure an expedited clean-up of PORTS that will ensure community-directed reuse of the site to generate new economic development in southern Ohio."

In the letter to Acting Assistant Secretary Huizenga, Brown wrote, "Pike County faces an unemployment rate of more than 15 percent, your efforts putting people to work today and investing in the site's future is more important than ever. As budgets continue to shrink, the future of the site will rely on your continued focus on maintain the current funding streams and providing a robust decommissioning and decontamination of PORTS, while working with the community."

In addition to the ongoing clean-up, USEC is currently applying for a government loan guarantee that would help build state-of-the-art uranium enrichment technology at the former DOE Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon. If successful, the ACP could bring as many as 4,000 construction jobs and 400 long-term, full-time jobs to Piketon.

Brown is working closely with USEC and DOE to ensure facilitated coordination efforts for the American Centrifuge Project. At the end of 2010, Brown urged the Obama Administration to move forward in approving the loan guarantee for the ACP and to fully fund cleanup at the former Gaseous Diffusion Plant. In February 2010, Brown worked with DOE to reach an agreement that resulted in DOE devoting $45 million in new funds to advance the ACP. In October 2010, Brown visited Piketon. A week later, DOE announced that efforts to secure a loan guarantee for USEC have taken a significant step forward and that DOE and USEC had reached a framework for further discussions. In December 2010, Brown called on the administration to fully fund the Piketon Cleanup.

As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Brown has led the fight in Congress to accelerate the Piketon clean-up and to create new jobs. He successfully secured an expedited timeframe for the clean-up, moving the completion date up by more than 20 years. As a result of Brown and President Obama's efforts, Piketon doubled the amount of cleanup funding that they received, including $118 million in cleanup funds through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. President Obama's FY 2011 budget request also includes nearly $500 million for the project.

Full text of the letter follows:

Dear Mr. Huizenga:

Congratulations on assuming the position of Acting Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management. The work ongoing at the Department of Energy's (DOE) former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PORTS) is critical to the success of Southern Ohio's efforts to rebuild what was one of the region's largest economic engines. I look forward to continuing to work with the Office of Environmental Management (EM) ensuring an expedited cleanup of PORTS that will ensure community-directed future reuse of the site.

The PORTS site is located in the heart of Ohio's Appalachian region. Pike County and its 28,000 people have a long history with the DOE which has historically been one of the region's largest employers until the PORTS closure in 2001. The Decommissioning and Decontamination (D&D) of PORTS will allow the site to once again become an economic engine and will provide numerous opportunities for future reuse.

Under your predecessor's leadership, the PORTS site grew its workforce to more than 2,600 people and reduced the overall timeline for the cleanup by more than two decades. In addition, past management and community relations grew to a new level of trust and understanding. Today, the majority of the site has returned to DOE control and the Site Specific Advisory Board will soon begin its fourth year of service. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the cleanup has transitioned to D&D with the site contractors ramping up the cleanup in the near future.

The site has many challenges. From determining future reuse, to completing the worker transition, to continuing to improve on the progress the local PORTS office has made with the community; your continued focus in making the site a priority within EM will be critical to building on these successes and overcoming the remaining challenges. I am also concerned that DOE's proposed reshuffling of departments could place EM under the National Nuclear Security Administration and would only add to, rather than subtract from the focus and funding of the EM mission.

As Pike County faces an unemployment rate of more than 15%, your efforts putting people to work today and investing om the site's future is more important than ever. As budgets continue to shrink the future of the site will rely on your continued focus on maintaining the current funding streams and providing a robust D&D, while working with the community.

I look forward to talking with you soon about your plans for PORTS.

Sincerely,

Sherrod Brown

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