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Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson announced today during a visit to the Mound Plant in Miamisburg, Ohio, that the Space Power System program would remain at Mound rather than be transferred to another Department of Energy (DOE) site.

"For 38 years the Mound Site has served a key role in the development, production and deployment of radioisotopic generators and heat sources used for NASA's deep space missions," said Secretary Richardson. "This is an enduring mission for the department that we believe can safely and cost-effectively continue as a stand-alone operation at Mound as the rest of the site is decomissioned and turned over to the city of Miamisburg."

Also today at Mound, Secretary Richardson delivered on his department's pledge to help communities affected by defense-related downsizing by announcing a DOE award of $5 million to the local community organization, Miamisburg Mound Community Improvement Corp. The money will be used to finance capital improvement projects at the site and to stimulate economic growth in the region.

DOE considered transferring the Space Power System program to another site since the program would eventually be the only departmental activity left at the site. The preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to evaluate potential alternate sites was initiated last fall and public scoping meetings were held at six potential sites the DOE was considering. Concurrent with the initiation of the EIS, DOE also undertook several detailed reviews to evaluate safeguards, security and safety related to maintaining the operations at Mound as a stand-alone facility, and an economic comparison of operations at Mound and other sites. These studies confirmed that the operations can continue to be safely conducted at Mound and that it is not economically advantageous to move the operation.

With the Secretary's announcement today, DOE will no longer pursue the potential transfer of the operations from Mound and a notice will be published in the Federal Register that the department is terminating the preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) related to this effort.

Mound has been involved in the assembly and testing of space nuclear power systems for nearly 40 years. Systems assembled and tested at Mound have flown on space missions to the moon, to Mars, and to explore the outer planets. The most recent mission that uses the systems assembled and tested at Mound is the Cassini spacecraft that was launched in 1997 to study the planet Saturn. Missions in the future will continue to use these systems.