Piketon set to become ground zero for new energy megasite

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Department of Commerce, in partnership with SoftBank and AEP Ohio, unveiled plans for the PORTS Technology Campus, a vast energy and artificial intelligence complex in Piketon, Ohio. Located on the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant site in Pike County, the project envisions a 10-gigawatt data center alongside 9.2 gigawatts of new natural gas generation. This announcement follows an investment of $4.2 billion by SB Energy, a SoftBank subsidiary, and AEP Ohio to upgrade regional transmission lines, with construction slated to begin this year. SoftBank Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son emphasized the role of AI in transforming industries and the necessity of this infrastructure. The ambitious development, valued at $33 billion for the gas plant alone, is financed by Japan under a $550 billion U.S.-Japan trade deal. SoftBank, holding no equity in the gas plant, will collect developer fees and has already ordered 170 gas turbines from GE Vernova. This complex is one of several proposed energy projects for the site, which remains contaminated and not fully remediated. Other plans include a 1.2 GW nuclear power campus from Oklo Inc. and Meta, an expansion of High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium production by Centrus Energy, and a hydrogen power facility by Trillium H2 Power. Many of these projects face significant regulatory hurdles; for instance, Oklo's nuclear license application was denied by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in 2022 and has not been resubmitted. The project raises considerable environmental, safety, and community concerns. The proposed natural gas facility would be one of the largest single-source air polluters in the country, yet no air quality permits, environmental impact assessments, or public comment periods have been announced. The site's history of widespread radioactive and chemical contamination, including the closure of a local middle school due to enriched uranium byproduct detection, has left the community with elevated cancer rates and chronic illnesses, for which they have been systematically denied compensation under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA). Additionally, energy analysts express skepticism due to supply chain constraints, skilled labor shortages, and a lack of interconnection applications with PJM Interconnection. The validity of the U.S.-Japan trade deal is also uncertain following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling against the tariff program that underpinned it. Critics highlight the absence of a public security plan for co-locating a massive gas plant, a 10-gigawatt AI data center, a hydrogen facility, two nuclear reactors, and a uranium enrichment operation in a rural community with limited emergency response capabilities, presenting what could be one of the most strategically significant and vulnerable complexes in the U.S.