Reporting by Abby Ayes at WSAZ, Carr Smyth and Leah Willingham at the Associated Press, and staff at Ohio University.
The U.S. Department of Energy says construction at the PORTS Technology Campus in Piketon, Ohio, could reach up to 30,000 workers at its peak over the next couple of years. More than 2,200 people already work at the site today.
The campus sits on the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Pike County. National and local leaders gathered there on October 14 to talk about what the build means for southern Ohio, WSAZ reported.
What Happened
"There should be about, up to 30,000 jobs at the peak construction over the next couple of years," Tim Walsh, DOE's assistant secretary for environmental management, told WSAZ.
Once the data centers are built, DOE expects about 1,000 or more direct jobs to run them. Construction is expected to take about five years. DOE says the project is privately financed.
The project also includes a $40 million community investment, which could go toward childcare so more parents in the region can take the jobs, according to WSAZ.
"It should really change this entire area," said Kevin Shoemaker, attorney for the Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative, the redevelopment group for the site.
The Work Already Under Way
Piketon is not starting from zero. More than 2,200 workers are employed at the 3,700-acre site now, per DOE. Crews are deactivating the X-330 Process Building and are nearly finished with X-333. DOE has converted 4,500 legacy uranium hexafluoride cylinders, about 20 percent of the site's inventory, into more stable forms.
That workforce is the base the new build sits on. Cleanup crews clear ground, and construction crews follow.
The October 14 event brought DOE, project partners and local leaders to the site to walk through the economic impact of the campus and the wider American Energy Hub planned around it.
What Is Planned
DOE and the U.S. Department of Commerce announced the PORTS Technology Campus on March 20, 2026, as a partnership with SoftBank Group, through its affiliate SB Energy, and AEP Ohio, the Associated Press reported.
- A data center campus of about 10 gigawatts, with research work in fusion energy, quantum computing and national security.
- Up to 10 gigawatts of new generation, including 9.2 gigawatts of natural gas, both on site and connected to the grid.
- $4.2 billion from SB Energy and AEP Ohio for grid upgrades and new transmission lines.
- $33.3 billion in Japanese funding tied to the natural gas generation, under the U.S. and Japan Strategic Trade and Investment Agreement.
Ohio University put SB Energy's initial investment at more than $37 billion, counting the $33 billion power plant and the $4.2 billion in AEP Ohio grid work.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said at the March announcement that the project would "add power generation, create jobs, and ensure the United States wins the AI race."
For AEP Ohio, the campus means new transmission and substation work. Line crews, substation electricians and the contractors who support them are the people who will connect a 10-gigawatt campus to the grid.
What the Jobs Look Like
A campus this size draws on almost every construction trade. Site work and foundations come first, then steel, then the electrical and mechanical work inside the data halls. The generation side adds pipefitters, millwrights, boilermakers and turbine crews. The grid side adds lineworkers and substation electricians.
For scale, the Homer City Energy Campus in western Pennsylvania, a 4.5-gigawatt gas plant and data center build, passed 2,000 tradespeople on site in October. Piketon's projected peak is many times that number. Positive Current also covered AEP's $100 billion build plan last week.
The Rest of the Hill
The data center is one of several projects lining up at Piketon.
Centrus Energy received a $900 million DOE award in January 2026 to expand uranium enrichment. The company expects 1,000 construction jobs and 300 new operating jobs in Ohio, and says it will keep 150 existing jobs at the Piketon plant, according to Ohio University. The award also supports work at the company's centrifuge manufacturing plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the company points to thousands of indirect jobs across the two states.
Oklo is developing a small modular reactor project of up to 1.2 gigawatts to serve Meta's regional data centers. Oklo says it expects thousands of construction and long-term operations jobs and new local and state tax revenue, per the same Ohio University report.
Ohio University's Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Service runs PORTSfuture, a DOE-funded program that has supported redevelopment of the site since 2010.
Put together, Piketon has three separate builds on one federal site: enrichment, advanced nuclear and a data center campus with its own generation. Each one hires on its own schedule, and each one needs the same trades.
What to Watch
- Hiring for the first wave of construction, and how fast it moves toward the 30,000 peak.
- How the $40 million community investment is spent, including childcare.
- AEP Ohio's transmission build and the line and substation crews it brings in.
- Training partnerships with schools and colleges in the region.
- Centrus and Oklo hiring, which runs alongside the data center build.
Sources
- Abby Ayes, "From uranium to AI: Inside the plan to redevelop the former Portsmouth gaseous diffusion plant," WSAZ, October 14, 2026.
- The Associated Press, "Trump officials announce 10-gigawatt data center, gas plants for former Ohio uranium site," 13abc, March 20, 2026.
- OHIO Today staff, "PORTSfuture groundwork continues to pay off in job growth at Pike County plant," Ohio University, March 17, 2026.
Reliable power. Affordable power. Great jobs.
Tips and corrections: amos.snead@positivecurrent.com
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