Greg Wilkett, Fluor-BWXT President and CEO
PIKETON, Ohio – February 5, 2016 – For the fifth consecutive year, the U.S. Department of Energy and Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth have announced a special opportunity to participate in a limited number of monthly public tours in 2016 of the former uranium enrichment facility in Piketon. Due to the popularity of the general public tours that began in 2012, additional tours have been scheduled from March through October 2016.
More than 1,100 people have attended the public tours since they were initiated in April 2012, enjoying a guided history lesson of the site and getting a first-hand view of current activities on the plant site. Now, the Department of Energy is making the following eight dates available for the general public and is taking pre-registrations:
"We are excited to continue these special tours for the public to get a close-up view of the former uranium enrichment facilities while they are being addressed under the Decontamination & Decommissioning (D&D) Project,” said Dr. Vincent Adams, Site Director for the U.S. Department of Energy. “The plant in Piketon, Ohio was one of only three gaseous diffusion plants built in the United States in the early 1950s to serve our country’s defense and energy needs. It operated for nearly five decades and thousands of workers have passed through the security gates over the years.”
Adams added, “The tours provide a unique opportunity to better understand the history of the plant, its current activities and future missions.”
All interested participants must pre-register and tours are available on a first-come, first-serve basis. The tours are free of charge and each tour will accommodate a maximum of 40 people. A minimum of 20 participants will be required to conduct a tour. All attendees must be 18 years of age or older and must be U.S. citizens. No cameras, cell phones, or other recording devices will be permitted.
The tours are being coordinated by D&D contractor Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth’s Public Affairs Office and last approximately three hours. This is primarily a driving bus tour with one stop to visit inside the Plant Control Facility, the hub of the gaseous diffusion plant. The tour involves minimal walking, just a short distance from the bus to the building.
Timeframe for the tours includes badging from 8:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. the day of the tour with a brief welcome before boarding a charter bus for the driving portion. Participants are returned by noon.
To register and obtain further information on the tours, please call Sandy Childers at (740) 897-2336 and leave a voice message carefully stating your name and leaving a daytime telephone number so follow-up communications can be made to finalize your tour registration. Or you may email her at sandy.childers@ports.pppo.gov. Deadline for signing up for the March 19 tour is March 4, 2016.
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About Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth LLC
Fluor Corporation (NYSE: FLR) and BWX Technologies, Inc (BWXT) (NYSE: BWXT), two world-class companies with significant Ohio experience, formed Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth LLC (FBP) to address the decontamination and decommissioning (D&D) needs at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Portsmouth Site in Pike County, Ohio. Fluor-BWXT which employs 1,900 workers includes two local mentor/protégé companies, inSolves and Wastren Advantage, Inc., and a small business, Pro2Serve, brings unparalleled experience, insights, and lessons learned from across the DOE complex. The Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth mandate is to clean up the Portsmouth Site safely and compliantly, provide strong uranium stewardship and partner with local communities to achieve a sustainable economic future. For more information, visit www.fbportsmouth.com.
