March 22, 2026 Beginning in the 1950s, the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon Ohio enriched uranium, first just for nuclear weapons and then also for nuclear reactors. As a result, many areas on and around the site are heavily contaminated with radioactivity and other pollutants. The plant itself is a Superfund site. Nevertheless, there are now plans to install nearly 200 gas turbines, a "blue hydrogen" plant, an enormous AI data center, and an unspecified number of "Small Modular Reactors" (two to begin with, many more to follow) at the Portsmouth site. (Small Modular Reactors are usually abbreviated SMR, we'll use the more appropriate SMNR (Small Modular Nuclear Reactor) here.) Why at Portsmouth? Why now? One reason seems obvious: Since the site is already highly contaminated, "routine" releases of radioactivity from the SMNRs will be difficult to track. Even significant radiation releases will disappear among variations in contamination levels from one acre to another in and around the nearly six square-mile site. (And DOE site "clean-up" sometimes means little more than putting more soil or concrete on top of contaminated soil or concrete.) Who could ever prove that their cancer or their child's birth defect was the result of a new accident, the original contamination, last century's nuclear weapons testing, or something else entirely? What is happening in Piketon, Ohio follows a pattern of proposing SMNRs and AI data centers together in places that already have existing nuclear contamination. For example, there are plans to build AI data centers and SMNRs at the Hanford site in Washington state and at two closed nuclear plant sites: Palisades in Michigan and Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania (both locations are also trying to reopen their old reactor (not the one that melted down at TMI, the one that hasn't...yet)). Every operating or decommissioned nuclear power plant has something advocates of SMNRs and data centers both need: Connections to the electrical grid. They also have a pre-contaminated environment that will make it difficult, if not impossible, to separate the old pollution and health effects from any new pollution and health effects. In Parsons, Kansas, a company that has never built a nuclear reactor plans to install an experimental SMNR a mile underground in a industrial park on a former weapons production site. The company lists data centers as one of its targeted industries. When the reactor stops running (expected in less than a decade of use) they plan to simply leave it in place, and put another one directly above it, and then another... And if there's an accident? There's NO plan for that (other than to pour some concrete down the hole and walk away). The Parsons plan is moving forward rapidly under new Department of Energy (DOE) regulations that bypass the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and state and local regulatory agencies. The developer and the DOE claim that the SMNR at Parsons will go critical in July of this year (2026) -- less than eight months after the surprise announcement of the plan and only five months after digging began. Obviously, it's unlikely to actually happen that fast, but they received lots of money from the DOE anyway just for saying they'd try. Nuclear power plants and nuclear waste repositories have always been potential military and terrorist targets. AI data centers ramp the threat up exponentially. In the first few weeks of the current war against Iran, at least three data centers have been attacked already. Even countries that obey global conventions for protecting civilian infrastructure (such as energy centers, water pumping and desalination plants, hospitals, schools, global heritage sites, dams and so on) may feel "obliged" to attack data centers, even if there are SMNRs there. Terrorists may attack them *because* the SMNRs are there. And since America no longer obeys such conventions, morality, or international laws, there is no reason to think any of our enemies in the future will if/when they attack us (with weapons we can't even imagine today, just as drone swarms were unimaginable just a few years ago). Proposals to put SMNRs deep underground may sound good for security against war, terrorism and other threats. But it has many additional risks and problems of its own. Nuclear power has no future in a world constantly at war. Thus, it has no future on earth. References: Jason Salley's excellent article covers the history and potential future of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant site: https://sciotovalleyguardian.com/2026/03/20/Pike County-set-to-become-ground-zero-for-new-energy-megasite/ Citizens in Kansas have established the Prairie Dog Alliance to inform citizens about the plans to build SMNRs in Parsons: https://peaceworkskc.org/parsons-residents-express-concerns-at-prairie-dog-alliance-public-meeting/ World Nuclear News describes the plan for an underground SMNR in Parsons, Kansas: https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/articles/deep-fission-begins-drilling-first-data-acquisition-well
Contact information for the author of this newsletter:
Carlsbad, California USA
Author, The Code Killers:
An Expose of the Nuclear Industry
Free download: acehoffman.org
Blog: acehoffman.blogspot.com
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Email: ace [at] acehoffman.org
Founder & Owner, The Animated Software Company
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