Meta signs power agreement with Constellation nuclear plant
Meta Platforms struck an agreement with Constellation Energy to keep one of the utility’s reactors in Illinois operating for 20 years, in the Big Tech company’s first such deal with a nuclear power plant.
A Maryland-based nuclear fuels company announced a multi-billion dollar, public-private expansion in Pike County, promising 300 new jobs plus about 1,000 construction workers at its peak.
Under the plan, Centrus Energy will invest at least $1.58 billion to expand its uranium enrichment capacity at the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant just south of Piketon. The plant would produce the fuel for nuclear power generation.
Centrus’s CEO Amir Vexler said the goal is to better compete with foreign uranium producers, including China and Russia, as the U.S. continues to meet domestic energy demands increasingly driven by artificial intelligence and data centers.
Gov. Mike DeWine said, “This is really great news. Centrus is expanding at Piketon, right here in Ohio. There’s going to be at least 299 new jobs.”
Additionally, Centrus will retain 127 existing jobs at the Piketon facility, about 15 minutes south of Waverly, the Pike County government seat.
“As we look to the future, very much it’s going to include nuclear,” DeWine said. “It’s very important for us … to have a major role in the development of nuclear.”
The Piketon nuclear power plant was decommissioned in the early 2000s, leaving the United States to import most of the enriched uranium needed for nuclear plants, including from China and Russia. The Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Pike County once produced fuel for the nation’s nuclear weapons and later for commercial nuclear reactors. The plant operated from 1954 to 2001.
The Department of Energy owns the site but has been transferring chunks of the property to an initiative seeking to redevelop it. Cleanup of the site has been ongoing since 1989. Some former workers at the site and nearby residents have said they became sick from their exposure to hazardous materials over the years.
Part of the property already is planned for redevelopment, including a hydrogen-fueled power plant and two nuclear reactors.
Centrus has agreements with JobsOhio and others to hire and retain employees, ranging from security to technical operators, engineers and administrators to electricians and accountants. All jobs will involve high-level security clearances and are reserved for U.S. residents.
Neither the state nor JobsOhio will give grants or loans for the project, according to a release, but JobsOhio will provide Centrus with “talent acquisition services.”
The company, using centrifuges, will produce high-assay, low enriched uranium to fuel advanced small modular and advanced reactors. The company also has plans to manufacture low-enriched uranium, fuel needed to operate almost all of the 94 currently operating nuclear reactors in the U.S. Ohio has two nuclear power plants, both in northern Ohio.
“This one will put Ohio at the forefront of really reclaiming America’s leadership in nuclear energy,” Vexler said.
The company will manufacture its centrifuges in Oak Ridge, Tenn., with the support of a nationwide manufacturing supply chain that currently spans 14 major suppliers in 13 states, according to a release. The centrifuges and supporting equipment will then be sent to Piketon for final assembly, installation and operation.
Much of the project’s success is based on continuing support from the U.S. Department of Energy’s investment in a domestic nuclear fuel supply chain. “The ultimate size and scope of the expansion really depends on the DOE’s decision,” Vexler said.
Centrus has several contracts contingent upon building out its operations. Some of those include utility companies that Vexler declined to name.
Sen. Jon Husted said “our very real adversaries on the battlefields of war” are currently our suppliers of uranium. He called the investment in the project historic and a benefit to neighboring Chillicothe, Portsmouth, Piketon and elsewhere.
“As America looks to become dominant in AI, it’s going to require a lot of more energy. If you want zero-carbon energy, the only way to produce it is nuclear,” Husted said.
J.P. Nauseef of Jobs Ohio hailed Ohio’s workforce as strong and talented and will help fill the jobs with a salary of at least $50,000 annually. The project is expected to generate $31 million in new payroll for the state.
Gary Arnett, Pike County’s economic development director, said the expansion “is going to be a shot in the arm, and it’s going to be for every county touching Pike.”
Asked about the jobs being linked to nuclear power, Arnett said, “You got people that don’t want uranium. But what else is going to go here? General Mills is not going to want to come here.”
Growth and development reporter Dean Narciso can be reached at [email protected].
