More was said about the Piketon atomic plant / Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Chillicothe Council Monday evening.
With a resolution on the agenda opposing the proposed dump at the decommissioned facility, officials at the plant spoke up.
Jeff Stevens is with the private contractor who is running all operations on the site. He said he is familiar with concerns about such dumps, with four waste dumps from uranium mining near his home in New Mexico.
Stevens said they had some of the best personnel in the world design around what the public wanted - which includes redevelopment of the site.
Soil will be needed to mix in with demolition debris, which is conveniently in the form of old landfills there. But if the new dump is located elsewhere, the old dump areas would remain, and not be reusable. About 70% of the site would be unavailable if the dumps are not consolidated.
Johnny Reising is a member of the Department of Energy staff there. He said criticism about the new dump being too close to groundwater is wrong.
He said the Berea sandstone is considered the aquifer, and the location is on shale above that - making it 70 to 120 feet above the accepted aquifer.
Reising said concerns about fractures in the rock are also wrong. He said the computer modeling showed it would be safe for 1,000 years.
Jeff Stevens had the last word - he said "we believe our information is 'rock solid'...pun intended."
Council had taken a tour of the facility Wednesday. The resolution opposing the proposed dump is intended to go all three readings.
Kevin Coleman regularly reports on Chillicothe & Circleville councils and local culture