DOE tells Yucca contractors to stop work, prepare further job reductions

WASHINGTON -- The dismantling of the Yucca Mountain repository plan advanced this week when the Department of Energy ordered the project's main contractors to stop most work and prepare further job reductions.

The department Tuesday notified operations and management company USA Repository Services to halt activities on the nuclear waste program except to preserve records and administer the Yucca Mountain pension and workers compensation plans and medical coverage for retirees.

"Effective May 24, 2010, USA RS is no longer tasked to perform work on contract tasks other than that needed for an orderly shutdown of the contract," a department contracting officer said in a letter to Douglas Cooper, the company's general manager.

The contractor was directed to provide estimates of severance pay and other costs to carry out a reduction in the company's work force by Monday .

The Department of Energy issued a similar letter to Sandia National Laboratories, the lead science agency on the project, DOE spokeswoman Stephanie Mueller said.

She said DOE was telling the contractors "to cease all licensing-only related activities and requesting cost estimates and plans for contract closeout activities."

The spokeswoman added the USA Repository Services contract "will not be terminated" but will be kept to manage the shutdown.

As of February, roughly 440 people worked for Yucca contractors, a number that has diminished since then as workers depart ahead of the expected pink slips. Another 180 or so are federal workers, some of whom have sought or been offered other DOE jobs.

The stop-work order is the latest Department of Energy action to wind down the nuclear waste repository as the Obama administration seeks to reorder the nation's nuclear waste management.

The notice came several days after the expiration of a 21-day DOE freeze on termination activities. The freeze expired after a panel of federal judges denied a motion for a longer injunction.

A lawsuit is pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and a legal challenge to the project termination will be heard before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission next month.

But there is nothing stopping the Energy Department now from moving forward with the dismantling.

The DOE stop-work notice might be more of a formality as most activity on the project had been halted already, said Bruce Breslow, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects.

"My understanding was they weren't doing any work besides record preservation," said Breslow, whose office monitors the project.

In Congress, Nevada lawmakers who have been working with the Obama administration to end the Yucca project applauded the latest move.

"This is a project that never should have been started, and the senator is pleased that taxpayers no longer have to waste their money on it," said Jon Summers, spokesman for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.

"We are squeezing the life out of Yucca Mountain one dollar at a time," said Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev. "The announcement that these contracts are being ended is one more sign we are inflicting maximum damage."

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