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Bechtel National Plans 515 Layoffs

Posted on: Friday, 9 December 2005, 21:00 CST

By Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald, Kennewick, Wash.

Dec. 6--Bechtel National plans to lay off 515 employees to meet the reduced budget Congress approved for building Hanford's radioactive waste vitrification plant.

In addition, the Department of Energy contractor plans a temporary halt to construction on the two largest facilities at the plant, the Pretreatment and High Level Waste buildings.

The layoffs are in addition to about 1,200 job cuts over the past year at the massive construction project. That will drop employment to about 1,725 manual and nonmanual workers.

At the project's peak, up to 3,800 people were employed.

"These are very difficult times and we are making painful decisions," Jim Henschel, Bechtel National project manager, said in a message sent to employees Monday. "I want you to know that these actions in no way reflect on your commitment, craftsmanship or excellence."

The memo said 240 construction workers and 275 nonmanual employees will be laid off.

Individual nonmanual employees will be told this week if they are losing their jobs and will continue working until early February. All will have at least 60 days notice.

The nonmanual employee layoffs will cover a broad range of job titles, said Bechtel National spokesman John Britton. About half work at the construction site or otherwise support construction activities, and the other half work in town, he said. No severance pay is planned.

The 240 construction workers will be laid off by Dec. 22 in a round of layoffs that began Thursday. Those layoffs become effective immediately. About 300 construction workers will continue on the project.

For fiscal year 2006, which began Oct. 1, Congress budgeted $526 million for construction at the vitrification plant, which will turn some of Hanford's worst waste into a stable glass for permanent disposal. The waste, held in underground tanks, is left from the past production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program.

However, DOE had earlier developed a long-range plan for the massive construction project that called for $690 million to be appropriated each year through 2007. DOE proposed a cut to $626 million for 2006 originally, but another $100 million was subtracted from the budget when DOE gave the project inadequate support in Congress this fall, said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.

Congress has questioned the project since a study in late 2004 showed parts of the plant may not have been designed to survive a severe earthquake. Also, an Army Corps of Engineers study suggested the cost of the plant might increase from $5.8 billion to nearly $10 billion because of technical and management issues.

The $526 million budget for fiscal year 2006 includes money for cost reviews and more earthquake studies, dropping the new money available for work by Bechtel National to $490 million. That's about $200 million less than expected a year ago.

The previous round of layoffs in November dropped the staff only to bring costs in line with a $626 million budget. Bechtel National is taking other steps to meet the $490 million budget, including deferring purchasing of equipment and materials and deferring or ending subcontracts.

Since April, $70 million in procurements have been canceled, Britton said.

However, the fiscal year 2006 budget instructions limit how Bechtel National can spend money on the project. For the first time on the project, Congress set funding levels for specific buildings: $149 million for the Pretreatment Facility, $104 million for the High Level Waste Facility, $163 million for the Low Activity Waste Facility, $45 million for the Analytical Laboratory and $65 million for the remainder of the plant.

The two largest buildings, the Pretreatment Facility and the High Level Waste Facility, also are the buildings affected by the new earthquake standards and their construction was slowed over the past year.

Because of the limited funding for those two buildings, particularly in proportion to the smaller buildings, Bechtel National plans to stop their construction temporarily. A pause of a matter of months should allow the contractor to take stock of its resources and see how much construction can continue, Britton said.

Engineering on the Pretreatment and High Level Waste buildings will continue. But planned concrete placements will be completed and excess materials, tools and equipment will be stored, according to Henschel's message to staff.

The stop to construction at the High Level Waste Facility will occur by Dec. 22 and the Pretreatment Facility by February, Henschel said.

Construction will continue on the Low Activity Waste Facility, the laboratory and the balance of the buildings in the project.

Bechtel National is trying to find jobs for as many laid-off employees as possible with other Bechtel projects, Britton said. Bechtel construction projects tied to energy are hiring, including projects in Wisconsin and Texas.

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Copyright (c) 2005, Tri-City Herald, Kennewick, Wash.

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Source: Tri-City Herald

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