Pike County, Ohio, Auditor Erica J. Snodgrass has added her voice to the growing list of opponents of a nuclear waste disposal facility to be built at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site.
“I want to see more economic development in Pike County. I want more jobs in Pike County. However, we should pursue these goals without the potential risk created by a radioactive dump. A small number of jobs for a brief period of time is not worth the potential harm of a 100-acre radioactive waste landfill that will be here for many generations and may permanently damage Pike County,” Snodgrass, county auditor since 2015, wrote in an Aug. 18 letter to the News Watchman newspaper.
Snodgrass on Monday confirmed to the Weapons Complex Morning Briefing her opposition to the on-site facility intended to hold waste from cleanup of DOE’s Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant. In her letter, she said she is among a number of parties to speak against the project, including the villages of Piketon and Waverly, Seal and Scioto townships, Site Specific Advisory Board, Scioto Valley Local Schools, and the Pike County Joint Vocational School.
The Piketon and Waverly councils this month both approved resolutions objecting to the facility, the News Watchman reported.
The On-Site Waste Disposal Facility (OSWDF) is due to open in the early 2020s in the northeast corner of the Portsmouth Site, roughly 5 miles by road from the village of Piketon. It is expected to cost about $340 million, according to DOE and its cleanup prime at Portsmouth, Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth.
