The Associated Press

PIKETON – Federal officials say they are hopeful that the development of new uranium enrichment technology, and a new use for the Piketon atomic plant, will prevent the loss of 1,900 jobs there.

Saturday, October 07, 2000

PIKETON – Federal officials say they are hopeful that the development of new uranium enrichment technology, and a new use for the Piketon atomic plant, will prevent the loss of 1,900 jobs there.

It’s the ”hopeful” part that concerns Phil Tackett.

The 45-year-old welder from Lucasville was among several hundred employees of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant who cheered and applauded the Energy Department’s announcement Friday that the plant will remain on ”standby” as centrifuge technology is developed.

”It’s kind of confusing to me,” said Tackett, a plant employee of 25 years. ”To me a standby mode means less people. I’m a little skeptical.”

His concern was shared by many in the town of 1,700, who remain cautious after the announcement.

”I don’t believe anything they say from past experience,” said Missy Woods of Waverly, whose father works at the plant.

Woods and Darlene Frederick, who work at Giovanni’s Pizza just up U.S. 23 from the plant, questioned the timing of the announcement, with the presidential election a month away.

”Politics has a lot to do with it, you know,” Frederick said.

She said she will wait and see what happens after Nov. 7.

In some close presidential elections, turnout in southern Ohio has been important to Democratic candidates, a fact Rep. Ted Strickland, D-Ohio, has pointed out to Vice President Al Gore.

House Commerce Committee Chairman Tom Bliley, R-Va. -through a spokesman – called the plan ”an attempt to put Ohio in the Gore column.”

Bliley is a prominent critic of the way the Clinton administration handled the privatization of the nation’s uranium enrichment business suggested the election may have had something to do with the timing of the decision.

Strickland, who is seeking re-election in a district that includes the plant, downplayed the timing.

”If people have been paying attention, they will be aware we’ve been working on this for months and months,” Strickland said.

Richardson said the plan wasn’t politics, but, ”the right thing to do.”

Dan Minter, head of the union that represents most of the plant’s workers, said details must be worked out, but he believes all the workers will be retained.

”We don’t get a lot of good news in southern Ohio. Certainly, this is good news,” Minter said.