Agency says more Yucca jobs near end

WASHINGTON -- The Department of Energy is moving toward a final round of layoffs on the Yucca Mountain Project, which the agency wants to close down for good by the end of September.

Federal workers on the Las Vegas-based nuclear waste program were given a "notice of expected separation" on March 10 with a memo giving them priority consideration for openings elsewhere in the department, officials confirmed Tuesday.

Although final and formal reduction-in-force notices have yet to be issued, employees were told in the memo that "it is likely that your position will be eliminated due to a lack of funding," according to the document obtained by the Review-Journal that was sent to more than 180 workers in Nevada and at DOE headquarters in Washington.

"People are looking for jobs, no question about it, and we are closing the program down," DOE spokesman Allen Benson said.

"It will be gone by the end of September," added Benson about the project, which three years ago had a work force of 2,750 people.

DOE is expecting to vacate Yucca project offices in Summerlin by the end of July.

Anyone not gone by then probably will work from the National Nuclear Security Administration offices on Losee Road in North Las Vegas until the final shutdown, Benson said.

Although steps are being taken to separate federal workers from Yucca Mountain, there has been no reported action yet to terminate contractors including the project's management contractor USA Repository Services, which was awarded a five-year, $2.5 billion contract in 2008.

The Obama administration has zeroed out the Yucca Mountain Project in its budget request to Congress for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1.

Appropriations committees in the House and Senate will decide whether to carry out the request, which is coming amid signs of a Capitol Hill backlash against the administration's decision.

Most of the criticism is coming from nuclear industry backers and from Washington state and South Carolina lawmakers whose states are home to temporary waste storage they fear will become permanent if the Nevada program is scuttled.

Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., is circulating a draft House resolution that calls on the Department of Energy to "cease and desist" terminating workers and from withdrawing a repository construction application from Nuclear Regulatory Commission review.

A group of lawmakers including House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., and Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt, D-S.C., urged Energy Secretary Steven Chu in a letter late last week to restore funding for the Yucca program, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and 17 other business groups sent a similar letter last week to the leaders of the House and Senate appropriations subcommittees.

Chu has shown no signs of backing down from the decision to end the Yucca Mountain Project, which was a deal between President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

There will be no backing down, Reid's office said Tuesday.

"The dump's supporters need to start dealing with reality. This dump will not be built, especially as long as Harry Reid is the Senate majority leader," spokesman Jon Summers said.

Reps. Shelley Berkley and Dina Titus, both D-Nev., issued statements backing the shutdown.

"It was a misguided attempt from the start to turn Nevada into a nuclear waste dumping ground, and our hard work has prevented Yucca Mountain from becoming a reality," Titus said.

"President Obama pledged to Nevadans he would kill Yucca Mountain, and he kept his word by pulling the license for this failed $100 billion project," Berkley said.

Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760.