A nonprofit with a staff of three has quietly become one of the central players in the rebirth of the former Portsmouth uranium enrichment plant, having received more than 350 acres of federal land at the Piketon site for transfer into local hands, according to the Scioto Valley Guardian’s reporting on a U.S. Department of Energy release.
The Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative, known as SODI, has taken in the acreage since its founding in 1998 — nearly 10 percent of the original site’s footprint, according to the Department of Energy, as reported by the Scioto Valley Guardian. The transfers are part of the federal push to convert the Cold War-era gaseous diffusion plant into what officials call an American Energy Hub, anchored by more than $33 billion in planned investment.
Earlier this year, SoftBank and AEP Ohio announced a public-private partnership to redevelop Department of Energy land at the site, modernize its energy infrastructure and build advanced computing capacity in southern Ohio, according to the department, as reported by the Guardian.
The site’s original advantages still apply, Portsmouth Paducah Project Office Strategic Planner Greg Simonton said in a statement quoted by the Scioto Valley Guardian: the location was chosen for its secluded, rural nature and its proximity to resources and infrastructure, and those same features — plus the infrastructure still in place — are now an asset for reindustrialization. Simonton credited SODI with recognizing and promoting the site to industry partners.
SODI operates with three staff members and a volunteer board of 15 local leaders who meet monthly, according to the Guardian’s reporting. With help from Ohio University’s PORTSFuture program, the nonprofit built its recruitment plans around community feedback gathered after uranium enrichment ended at the site. SODI Legal Counsel Kevin Shoemaker said in a statement quoted by the Guardian that the community’s desire has always been for the site to be cleaned up and made available for new industry — and that after years of pitching developers, prospects are now reaching out to SODI because the site’s value is well known.
Executive Director Steve Shepherd said in a statement quoted by the Guardian that SODI has already invested millions of dollars across Jackson, Pike, Ross and Scioto counties, developing industrial parks, a GIS system, workforce training programs, a business incubator and an entrepreneur loan fund. According to the Department of Energy, SODI’s funding comes through asset recovery — surplus site material donated, resold or recycled locally — and through property transfers in which federal land is evaluated and, with board approval, sold to industry.
What happens next is the build-out itself: continued cleanup and land transfers at the site, and the SoftBank-AEP Ohio partnership’s work to turn transferred acreage into the energy and computing projects federal officials have announced for southern Ohio.