Brown Applauds Appointment of Piketon Cleanup Site Director

Press Release

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) today praised the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) appointment of a Site Director for the cleanup program at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon. Vince Adams, who is the current Director of the Recovery Act Program at the Savannah River Site and has previous experience at the Piketon site, will assume the role of Site Director for the cleanup project.

"Establishing a Site Director at Piketon is another sign of the Department of Energy's continued focus on the Piketon project," said Sen. Brown. "The Obama Administration's commitment to Piketon has included a massive increase in funding. These resources require a Site Director like Vince Adams who knows the community and can hit the ground running by providing support for the great team that is already in place."

Brown has been fighting for federal funds to promote economic development in Piketon. He has been working closely with USEC and DOE to ensure coordinated efforts for the American Centrifuge Project. Brown also led the fight in Congress to accelerate the Piketon cleanup and create new jobs. He successfully secured an expedited timeframe for the cleanup, moving the completion date up by more than 20 years. As a result of Sen. Brown's efforts, Piketon received $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. Federal funds for Piketon will have helped to create more than 275 jobs in the region.

In November, Brown visited the Piketon plant with U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Dr. Inés Triay to discuss cleanup, new jobs and ways to ensure the successful economic future of the entire DOE site.

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