Virtual Museum Captures Ohio Plant History
Web-based
Project Preserves Plant’s Uranium Enrichment Legacy
PIKETON, Ohio – Do you wonder what the interior of
a uranium enrichment plant looks like without ever stepping foot in the
facility?
DOE launched the website, www.portsvirtualmuseum.org, this year.
Already, it has generated more than 36,000 page views and 3,000 people from 22
countries have visited the website.
DOE established the website to preserve the rich
history of its southern Ohio plant built
between 1952 and 1956 to support the nation’s nuclear weapons program. The
website is maintained by DOE contractor Fluor-B&W
Portsmouth LLC.
“The plant played an important role in supporting
our nation’s defense through the Cold War as well as the development of nuclear
energy,” said Dr. Vince Adams, DOE Site Director. “I am proud of its history and
the virtual museum allows everyone to step inside and learn more about this
engineering and scientific marvel.”
An online museum on the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion
Plant went live earlier this year.
The facility
was the last of three gaseous diffusion plants built in the United States by
DOE’s predecessor agency, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). The Portsmouth
plant ended production of enriched uranium in May 2001, and preparations to
decontaminate and decommission (D&D) the facility are under way. The other
two plants were built in Oak Ridge, Tenn. and Paducah, Ky. The Oak
Ridge facility is currently being dismantled and Paducah’s
is still operational.
A special feature on the website is a 26-minute
documentary, “ The
Portsmouth Story,” produced by AEC. The feature contains footage of the
plant being built on the 3,777-acre federal property.
At the time of the Ohio plant's construction, the
facility's three uranium enrichment process buildings were among the largest in
the world, encompassing more than 10 million square feet on 90 acres.
Altogether, those three buildings are comparable in size to three Yankee
Stadiums and a football field. More than 100,000 tons of structural steel were
used to construct the Ohio buildings, and the facility used more than 2,000
megawatts of electricity daily during full operation. That was enough power to
service New York City at that time.
The plant’s initial mission was to produce highly
enriched uranium for nuclear-weapons-grade material at the height of the Cold
War. In the 1960s, its mission shifted to production of lower enriched uranium
for U.S. Naval nuclear submarine reactors and commercial nuclear power
plants.
After enriched uranium production ended at the plant,
it was placed in a cold standby mode for potential restart. However, in 2005,
DOE transitioned the plant into cold shutdown to deactivate equipment and
prepare for eventual dismantlement. In 2010, DOE awarded a
$2.1 billion contract to Fluor-B&W to conduct the D&D activities.
Workers under the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act have demolished some small support facilities
at the site. Fluor-B&W is preparing to demolish several additional support
buildings, including the plant’s primary administration building, former
cafeteria and medical facility, all built in the early 1950s.
“Some of the buildings are starting to disappear from
the landscape,” Adams said. “This website will preserve much of the history and
be an educational source for many years into the future.”
In addition to the newsletters, videos, exterior
and interior building images and photos of workers, the virtual
museum includes a general plant history and other documentation.
Photos, videotaped interviews and other information
related to the more than 130 buildings that comprise the plant will be added to
the website on an ongoing basis.
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