Chris Schneidmiller
WC Monitor
8/28/2015
Up to 500 Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth employees working on the decontamination and decommissioning of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Ohio are facing layoffs in coming weeks.
The company on Wednesday sent Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notices to 1,400 employees. The notices are required 60 calendar days ahead of any large-scale layoffs.
Between 325 and 500 workers will be impacted as Fluor-BWXT seeks to deal with a projected shortfall of tens of millions of dollars in fiscal 2016 for ongoing decommissioning of the former uranium enrichment site, company spokesman Jeff Wagner said. Another 70 workers at subcontracting companies could also lose their jobs. Voluntary separations will be accepted through Sept. 10, followed by a layoff process through the fall. “All job categories will be impacted,” Wagner told WC Monitor.
DOE requested $131 million for the decontamination and decommissioning project in fiscal 2016, and forecast $154 million in proceeds from Fluor-BWXT’s authorized sales of uranium to vendors and a $21 million carryover. However, the funding needed for the year is projected at $387 million, which would leave a roughly $81 million shortfall due to reduced appropriated funds and barter proceeds. The Senate has hewed to the DOE request, but the House has put the D&D appropriation at $156 million.
In a prepared statement, DOE said it “expects the contractor will make adjustments in the current workforce to ensure safe, efficient execution of priority work activities and programmatic requirements. The Department of Energy is committed to the safe and successful cleanup of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant Site. “
The D&D project is currently projected to wrap up between fiscal 2034 and 2041, assuming moderate funding, according to Wagner. However, DOE has recently indicated it could last to 2052. More than 200 buildings will be demolished, though some infrastructure could remain for later industrial use.
Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), a vocal critic of the administration’s handling of the Portsmouth cleanup program, lashed out again following the announcement of the layoffs.
“For the past three years Congress has been calling on this Administration to provide the Piketon site the stable funding it deserves,” Portman said in a press release. “Congress was barely able to prevent the Administration from laying off 700 Piketon employees during the holidays last winter. I thought the Administration would have learned its lesson with that experience, yet here we are again not even a year later, facing nearly the same situation. The Administration’s refusal to do the right thing by this community is baffling, especially given the President’s past statements of support.”
Local officials in Ohio said they would take steps to persuade Congress to increase funding for the remediation project. County commissioners in Pike and Scioto counties are planning a town hall meeting early next month for consideration of options including a caravan to Washington.
Scioto County Board of Commissioners Chairman Mike Crabtree said Thursday he had sent 200 signed letters to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) asking appropriators to intercede on the Portsmouth project’s behalf.
“That has always been the federal government’s position that they were going to clean up the site,” he said in an interview with WC Monitor. “It seems like every year we have to beg and plead for something that was promised.”
