Company preparing layoffs

WASHINGTON -- Contractors on the Yucca Mountain Project are preparing layoffs for between 60 and 80 workers in anticipation of budget cuts from Congress, officials confirmed on Tuesday.

Notices were expected to be distributed in the next few days to employees of Bechtel SAIC, the chief management company of the Energy Department nuclear waste program based in Las Vegas.

People working in accounting, finance, human resources and other business support departments were being considered for job cuts, company spokesman Jason Bohne said. Bechtel SAIC employs roughly 1,000 people.

Yucca officials confirmed the cutbacks a day after National Security Technologies, a contractor at the adjoining Nevada Test Site, disclosed that at least 200 workers could be laid off in the coming weeks.

In both cases, executives attributed the job threats to uncertainty when or whether Congress will pass a budget this year for the Energy Department.

With a new fiscal year starting Oct. 1, the House has passed a DOE spending bill, but the Senate has not and is not likely to by the end of the month. Without the certainty, DOE officials are telling contractors to tighten up.

In the case of Yucca Mountain, DOE officials expect cuts as large as $100 million below what the project is spending this year, spokesman Allen Benson said.

"The primary driver is the money," Bohne said. "If the money is not there, we have to cut somehow, and for us, that means people."

Bohne said personnel officials in the company, which is a partnership of Bechtel Corp. and Science Applications International Corp., were trying to place workers in other units of the parent firms.

This would be the second round of layoffs at Bechtel SAIC this year, as three dozen people were terminated in March.

The company's work force has fluctuated in recent years as the Yucca program has faced budget pressures and has undergone organizational changes.

Bechtel SAIC laid off about 150 people two years ago.

Last summer, as many as 500 workers were issued job warnings, with many transferring to the payroll of Sandia National Laboratories, which was assigned a larger role on the project.

This week, Sandia National Laboratories was preparing for layoffs, but the number was not expected to match Bechtel SAIC, project officials confirmed. Sandia officials could not be reached on Tuesday.

The Energy Department and its contractors are focusing on compiling data into an application to build a nuclear waste repository at the Yucca Mountain site, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

DOE officials have said that the license application is a priority, and that they will have it filed at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by June 30.

Several Nevada federal lawmakers this week said they are trying to find ways to rescue jobs at the Nevada Test Site.

By contrast, they applauded job losses in the Yucca Mountain program, which is politically unpopular in the state.

"The proposed layoffs at Yucca Mountain are a welcomed sign that the repository is losing momentum," said Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev.