Share
Duke Energy said Thursday it will join four partners to explore construction of a nuclear plant, its first in the Midwest, at a federal site in southern Ohio.
Duke made the announcement in Piketon, Ohio, with nuclear vendor Areva; fuel supplier USEC Inc., which leases much of the 3,700-acre site; UniStar Nuclear Energy, which provides licensing, construction and operating services; and the Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative, an economic development agency.
The Energy Department's Portsmouth site in Piketon opened in the 1950s to enrich uranium for use in nuclear fuel and defense applications. It's now undergoing cleanup for contamination.
The “clean energy park” the group envisions is part of an Energy Department program to turn former weapons sites into energy producers.
The partners will seek federal funding for the project's initial phase.
Duke will manage the project and would serve as the applicant for federal licenses.
Chairman and CEO Jim Rogers called Piketon the “perfect site” to add another nuclear plant to its fleet.
Duke operates two nuclear plants, Oconee and Catawba, in South Carolina, and McGuire on Lake Norman north of Charlotte. It is considering construction of a fourth plant near Gaffney, S.C.
Rogers called nuclear power an answer to expected limits on utility emissions of carbon dioxide, which is linked to climate change.
Duke derives 70 percent of its power from coal, a fuel that produces vast quantities of the greenhouse gas. Nuclear power plants, which produce half of Duke's electricity in the Carolinas, release no carbon dioxide.
“We cannot meet our obligation without new nuclear generation. It has to be in the mix,” Rogers said at the project's Ohio announcement.
Plant construction could create 1,400 to 1,800 jobs, Rogers said, followed by 400 to 700 permanent workers.
