The U.S. Department of Energy and its contractors will conduct a meeting Aug. 14,in Piketon,to update the public on the cleanup program at Portsmouth Gaseous Diff-usion Plant.

DOE also will introduce members of its newly formed advisory board for the Environmental Management Program at the plant.

The meeting is scheduled for 6 to 7:30 p.m. in Room 160 at The Ohio State University Endeavor Center on Shyville Road,located off Ohio 32 about a mile east of U.S. 23 near Piketon.

The update on environmental cleanup activities will include groundwater treatment and waste disposition. The public also can learn about inactive facilities removal as well as plans for future decontamination and decommissioning of the gaseous diffusion plant.

DOE's Site Specific Advisory Board has been formed since the last public meeting took place in March.

The citizens' panel is made up of 20 volunteer members who will serve two-year terms without compensation. The members live and work from Waverly to South Shore,Ky.

DOE officials said formation of the board ensures the community will have a voice in every step of the cleanup at the Portsmouth site.

The plant,on a 3,714-acre federal reservation southeast of Piketon,was built by the Atomic Energy Commission in the early 1950s, and operated for 50 years.

The plant enriched the fissionable U-235 isotope from natural uranium to various product concentrations,including weapons-grade uranium.

The decontamination and decommissioning process event-ually will lead to the closing of the plant in the coming decades.

The Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office in Lexington,Ky.,will have oversight of the Portsmouth advisory board.

The board's meetings will be announced in the media and the public will be encouraged to attend and ask questions and provide comments on the cleanup program.

G. SAM PIATT can be reached at (740) 353-3101,ext. 236.