The Department of Energy said Thursday it has awarded universities in Kentucky and Ohio a total of $5 million for research and outreach work for two key DOE Office of Environmental Management cleanup sites.
Ohio University received a five-year, $2.5 million grant to provide public outreach and information about cleanup of the former uranium enrichment plant at the agency’s Portsmouth Site in Pike County, Ohio.
The grant will continue public outreach initiated by the university’s Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs and its PORTSfuture project under a previous DOE grant, the agency said. Also covered in the grant is educational outreach programs with Pike County high school students, who prepare public summaries of DOE’s annual site environmental reports for the Portsmouth Site, DOE said.
Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth is DOE’s prime contractor for decontamination and decommissioning of the Portsmouth plant, over a 10-year contract awarded in 2010 and potentially worth $3.1 billion, including options. The consortium took over cleanup work at Portsmouth in 2011 from LATA/Parallax Portsmouth.
Meanwhile, the University of Kentucky received a grant for the same amount and tenure to perform outreach and prepare information about cleaning up the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant site in Paducah. The grant also calls for outreach efforts to area high schools.
