At 12:30 today, the United States Department of Energy will sign a sales contract turning the 306-acre site over to the community, marking just the second time the government has sold a former nuclear weapons plant to the private sector.
The purchase price is $10.
"I think we'll pay cash," said Michael Grauwelman, head of the Miamisburg Mound Community Improvement Corp, which was formed in 1994 to develop the property. The MMCIC, a not-for-profit corporation, will be the new owner.
Both buyer and seller think they are getting a good deal.
The Mound plant has long dominated both the physical and the community landscape of Miamisburg. For most of the latter half of this century, government workers labored in strict secrecy behind thick concrete walls, building key components for the nation's nuclear arsenal. At its peak in the late 1980s, the Mound Plant was the city's major employer, with approximately 2,300 workers.
The federal government, which has operated an environmental cleanup operation since it announced the plant's closure, doesn't need to make money on the sale. It will save millions of dollars by reducing the cost of maintaining it. The Department of Energy has the authority to dispose of the property under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954.
The sale will allow the community to more actively seek new businesses for the site. Miamisburg's goal is to turn the site into the Mound Advanced Technology Center by the year 2005. The city hopes to eventually attract 1,720 high-value jobs.
"This is very important to us," said Grauwelman. "This makes it clear where it's going to go and now we can make investments back into the site."
Grauwelman said the corporation lost a company that wanted to invest $350,000 last year because it could not guarantee the company a long-term lease or option to purchase.
Currently, there are 30 private companies, employing 260 people, at the complex. Many of the companies, such as the National Discovery Center, are being formed by former workers at the Mound seeking to use their technological skills in private business.
Babcock & Wilcox took over the environmental cleanup of nuclear materials this year and will finish the job in the next five years. Under the terms of the contracts, the Department of Energy, Babcock & Wilcox and the MMCIC will work together to complete the cleanup to industrial standards approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Ohio EPA. Buildings will be turned over as their cleanup is completed.
It has been less than five years since the Energy Department announced it was going to phase out nuclear trigger production at the Mound, an operation made expendable by the end of the Cold War. Since 1993, the Miamisburg community has worked to transform the site into a technology center to keep jobs and business in the area.
"The sale of the Mound facility signifies an important milestone for the Department of Energy," said Bob DeGrasse Jr., director of the energy department's Office of Community and Worker Transition. "The transfer has been a collaborative effort between the community, the contractor and the Department of Energy for early closure of a facility."
The Pinellas plant in Largo, Fla., is the only other nuclear plant to be returned to private hands. However, the Mound project is the largest single-site transfer in the Department of Energy's history and the first time it has transferred a National Priority List (Superfund) site.
"The sale will strengthen the local economy through the creation of new businesses and job opportunities," said DeGrasse.
Grauwelman said the past four years have been a whirlwind. "This is all new to the Department of Energy and new to us. We are on the cutting edge of all of this."
Legislation sponsored by Rep. Tony Hall, D-Dayton, last year that gave indemnity to potential businesses was key in advancing plans for the technology park, Grauwelman said. It protects companies from liability from environmental damage.
* CONTACT Dale Dempsey at 225-2270 or e-mail him at dale_dempsey@coxohio.com
SALE PROVISIONS
The sale of the Mound plant began with negotiations one year ago. Its provisions include:
* The Department of Energy is selling the property in the best
interest of the United States and to minimize the negative impacts of the
plant's closure.
* The transaction includes real property and improvements, excluding buildings that will be razed because of contamination. A contingency for buildings associated with the radiothermal generator program is provided until the future of the mission - the production of power sources for deep-space missions - is determined.
* Property will be transferred as environmental restoration by the government is completed.
* The Department of Energy will hold harmless and defend the MMCIC
against future environmental liability.