Monday, March 12, 2012

The Atomic Energy Commission - the story of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon

Thanks Ramey!  I, too, worked at the Goodyear Atomic Plant, but only ten years before moving on to columjbus, Ohio and the hydraulics industry with Denison.




Several people have asked me about the plant where I worked, for almost 41 years, when they found out I worked in the nuclear industry. Construction on the plant in Pike County Ohio began in 1951-52 on a nearly 5000 acre site which was rural farm land and woods. Prime contractor was Peter Kewit & Sons and was the largest industrial construction project in the world at the time (25,000 construction workers at peak in a county where the total population was only 16,000 prior to the project). Yesterday evening a friend sent me the following 2 videos about the construction and operation of the plant- The Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant for enriching Uranium. Early on Uranium was enriched to the assays required for weapons, U. S. Navy ships nuclear reactors and nuclear power plants. Much was done for foreign countries like France, Japan, England, etc. since at that time the U.S.A. had pretty much of a monopoly on Uranium enrichment. Link up to the 2 videos below if you are interested. They were produced by the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission and are very well done.  Ramey


Part 1





Part 2