Announcement Of Atomic Plant Set

TERRY KINNEY

CINCINNATI (AP) — The site of a former uranium enrichment plant tucked away in the hills of southern Ohio has the necessary infrastructure for a nuclear power plant — abundant water, a power grid and bipartisan political backing.

It's where the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant enriched uranium during the Cold War. Cleanup of the site is still going on, along with construction of a new-technology centrifuge process to enrich uranium for use in nuclear power plants.

President Barack Obama expressed support for clean energy and for workers at the plant during last year's campaign.

The state's top elected Democrats and Republicans, many of them longtime backers of atomic energy, are expected at the Piketon site on Thursday for the formal announcement.

They include Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat who used to represent the area in Congress, and Rep. Jean Schmidt, a Republican who does now.

Barry Bennett, Schmidt's chief of staff, has called it "a major, major plant."