The site of a former uranium enrichment plant tucked away in the hills of southern Ohio has the necessary infrastructure for a nuclear power plant _ abundant water, a power grid and bipartisan political backing.

It's where the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant enriched uranium during the Cold War. Cleanup of the site is still going on, along with construction of a new-technology centrifuge process to enrich uranium for use in nuclear power plants.

Officials declined to release details _ cost, capacity, time table _ on Wednesday. Sally Thelen, a Duke Energy spokeswoman in Cincinnati, said Duke will be a partner in the plant but declined to say how big a share of ownership Duke would have and who the partners will be...

...Spokeswoman Elizabeth Stuckle said even when the centrifuge plant, which still is seeking financing and a $2 billion government loan guarantee, is on line, and when the generating plant is completed, enriched uranium would not pass directly from the centrifuge to the plant.

It has to go elsewhere to be packed into usable fuel pellets or fuel rods, she said.

Marilyn Wall, a spokeswoman for the Sierra Club's Miami Group office in Cincinnati, said environmental organization remains opposed to construction of nuclear power plants because of several issues, including uranium mining practices and disposal of nuclear waste.

"We don't see it as a solution or a viable energy policy," Wall said. "And there are a lot of nuclear issues already in Piketon."