The Pike County, Ohio General Health District wants Congress to extend coverage under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) to residents in areas around the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site.
Localities around DOE’s Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant complex were not included in the last RECA expansion, which became part of the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill in July 2025, the Pike County health office said in a Monday press release.
The General Health District urged residents in the counties surrounding Portsmouth to write Rep. Dave Taylor (R-Ohio) and urge him to support inclusion of Portsmouth area people who may have been made ill by the site.
“The people of Pike County supported our nation’s defense for decades through the work performed at PORTS,” said Health Commissioner Matt Brewster in the release. “Congress has recognized other communities that hosted gaseous diffusion facilities. We are simply asking for equal consideration for the families, businesses, farmers, students, and residents who have lived in the shadow of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant.”
The Health District said while many former Portsmouth workers have had opportunities to seek compensation through federal worker compensation programs, community members living near the facility have generally not had the same opportunity under RECA.
The act provides lump-sum compensation to workers and certain others, including downwinders, developing certain cancers and other illnesses from the government’s nuclear weapons-related work.