COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio's nuclear landscape is a battleground, where the siren song of "clean" energy clashes with the grim reality of radioactive contamination and the escalating risks of aging atomic infrastructure. A recent 30-day snapshot, from mid-April to mid-May 2025, reveals a state grappling with its nuclear demons, pushing forward with potentially disastrous plant extensions while dodging accountability for decades of radioactive mess.
At the heart of the controversy is the looming specter of extended life for Ohio's two aging nuclear power plants, Perry and Davis-Besse, both clinging to the shores of Lake Erie like relics of a bygone era. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, in a move widely seen as a rubber stamp for the nuclear lobby, gave a preliminary thumbs-up to a 20-year license extension for the Perry Nuclear Power Plant. This decision, cloaked in bureaucratic jargon about "environmental impact," ignores the inherent dangers of extending the life of a nearly 40-year-old facility, a ticking time bomb threatening the health and safety of Ohioans.
Meanwhile, the Davis-Besse plant, a notorious offender with a history of safety lapses, hosted a hollow "community engagement" event, a cynical PR stunt designed to placate public anxiety about the plant's precarious condition. The plant's owner, Vistra Energy, is also toying with the idea of "clean" hydrogen production at Davis-Besse, a dubious scheme that relies on taxpayer subsidies and the continued operation of a plant that should have been decommissioned years ago.
Far from the sanitized narratives of the nuclear industry, the Portsmouth/Piketon complex in southern Ohio stands as a stark reminder of the toxic legacy of the atomic age. Here, while Centrus Energy profits from producing High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) – the fuel for the next generation of potentially catastrophic reactors – local communities continue to pay the price for decades of radioactive contamination. Watchdog groups are waging a desperate battle for transparency and accountability, exposing the DOE and its contractors' attempts to downplay the ongoing environmental and health impacts of the Piketon site.
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