WASHINGTON -- A portion of the Yucca Mountain workforce was told Thursday to brace for new layoffs early next year as the government nuclear waste project reshapes from a major spending cut and a redesign of key segments.

Top managers within the Department of Energy and its prime Yucca contractor Bechtel-SAIC Company LLC said in documents they anticipate personnel cuts based on a budget that was reduced 22 percent from last year.

"While we remain committed to minimizing impacts to employees, a reduction in force is unavoidable," Bechtel president and general manager Ted Feigenbaum said in a letter distributed to about 1,300 employees.

"I recognize that this is a difficult time of year to receive this type of news," Feigenbaum said, adding jobs would be safe at least for the rest of the year.

A copy of the letter was provided by Bechtel. Company spokesman Jason Bohne said Feigenbaum wasn't available for further comment.

Bohne said Bechtel will prepare a program plan for what can be accomplished within its budget allocation and present that to the Energy Department in January. Decisions about workforce reductions probably will follow, he said.

The company laid off about 150 people in April, and there has been some conjecture a new round of cuts could match or top that.

Officials declined to speculate on the size or nature of anticipated layoffs at Bechtel, a major employer in the valley whose white-collar workforce consists predominantly of scientists, engineers and technicians, and support staffers.

"I don't want to cause any consternation by guessing at a number," Bohne said. "Our focus is how we can meet the work scope and minimize the impact on the employees."

The looming cuts ripple from decisions made this fall in Congress and within the Energy Department that scaled back and redirected the repository effort that just four years ago won endorsements from President Bush and on Capitol Hill.

In the intervening years, the project was forced into delays by financial and technical setbacks, and from unrelenting political and legal opposition from the state of Nevada and environmental groups.

Lawmakers in November voted to spend $450 million on Yucca Mountain in fiscal 2006, a cut of $127 million from the previous year and $201 million less than what the Bush administration requested.

Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., who helped set the level, said the intent was to put the project on a slower path while the government explores nuclear fuel recycling as a possible component of its waste management policy.

Near the same time, DOE officials announced plans to postpone repository licensing in order to pursue new designs for nuclear waste containers that also would necessitate redesigning an industrial complex planned at the site 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

"It is the budget cuts that are having the most effect," said Joe Strolin, planning division administrator for the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects. "That was a fairly severe cut (DOE) took from last year and it will have to come out of somebody's hide."

Bechtel was allocated $285.4 million in the coming year, according to BSC and DOE documents.

Excluding fixed deductions for leases, multiyear contracts and litigation, Feigenbaum said central tasks of repository designing and engineering, quality assurance and license application preparation were allocated $244.9 million.

The company spent $260.7 million on those accounts this year, officials said.

Bechtel was expecting a small additional sum for work on transportation segments of the project, although DOE officials said programs that support nuclear waste transportation had been cut as well.

Yucca Mountain deputy director John Arthur outlined major project allocations in a letter Wednesday to Bechtel.

"It is recognized that this funding will result in a reduction of forces," he said.

DOE spokesman Allen Benson said government project leaders set funding allocations annually based on the spending approved by Congress and "program needs and priorities."

"We have to look at where we are going and we have to look at the program," Benson said. "When you take a $200 million hit you have to take it someplace."