Photo Date: 1983 Photo Number: 084 081 001 The Portsmouth
Gaseous Diffusion Plant is located in south central Ohio,
approximately 32 kilometers (20 miles) north of Portsmouth,
Ohio, and 112 kilometers (70 miles) south of Columbus, Ohio. The
site is situated on a 1,483-hectare (3,708-acre) federal
reservation approximately 6.5 kilometers (4 miles) south of the
Village of Piketon. Construction of the Portsmouth Gaseous
Diffusion Plant began in late 1952 to expand the Federal
Government's gaseous diffusion program already in place at Oak
Ridge, Tennessee and Paducah, Kentucky. The facility was built
to increase the production of enriched uranium at rates
substantially above the other two facilities because highly-
enriched uranium was required for use in nuclear submarine
reactors, and low-enriched uranium was needed for commercial
nuclear power plants. The first process cell went online in
September 1954. A gas centrifuge uranium enrichment program was
initiated in the early 1980s at Portsmouth. However, full op