Energy Department contractor Fluor Idaho says 28 employees took a voluntary separation package this spring as it reduces the workforce for the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) at the Idaho National Laboratory.
Another 30 have since March 1 either transferred to other Fluor jobs away from AMWTP or left the company altogether, spokesman Erik Simpson said in a Monday email.
With 58 employees departing so far, Fluor Idaho has exceeded its goal for April through June, and no involuntary layoffs will be necessary for this first phase of workforce reductions, Simpson said.
Fluor Idaho last month announced plans to cut its roughly 650-person workforce at the AMWTP by 190 people during the 2019 fiscal year, which runs through September. To accomplish this, the company is carrying out a two-phase voluntary separation plan. The second phase will take place between July and September.
The AMWTP opened in 2003 to retrieve, treat, and ship above-ground waste covered by a 1995 settlement between DOE, the state, and the U.S. Navy over nuclear waste storage in Idaho. In December, DOE announced plans to close the facility by the end of 2019 after it finishes treating and shipping about 65,000 cubic meters of transuranic waste to DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico.
In a separate press release Monday, the cleanup contractor said it generated more than $800 million in overall economic benefit to the state of Idaho during 2018. Altogether, Fluor Idaho carried about 1,650 employees on its payroll during the year, up 3% over the previous year. The company said its employees have an average salary of about $90,000.
Fluor Idaho has a five-year, $1.4 billion contract to oversee the Idaho Cleanup Project. The contract is scheduled to expire in March 2021.
