Four Republican lawmakers from Ohio last week sent a letter calling on Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz and White House Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan to secure sufficient funds to prevent the looming layoffs of hundreds of workers at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant Site decontamination and decommissioning. Project contractor Fluor-BWXT said on Wednesday that a budget shortfall of up to $81 million in fiscal 2016 would force it this fall to lay off 325-500 employees working on the remediation of the former uranium enrichment site. Another 70 subcontractor workers are also expected to lose their jobs. Fluour said the funding shortage was caused by reduced Department of Energy funding and a DOE restriction on the amount of uranium the company can sell to vendors.
“DOE’s announcement on August 25, 2015 that is has plans to lay-off 500 Ohio workers, 30 percent of the workforce at the site, is as much unacceptable as it was unavoidable,” according to the letter from Sen. Rob Portman and Reps. Brad Wenstrup, Bill Johnson, and Steve Stivers. “We write today to request that you utilize the transfer authority provided to you by Congress to fund Piketon D&D at a level that preserves current employment.” The lawmakers charged the Obama administration with failing to follow through on its pledge to clean up the site, noting the White House’s fiscal 2016 budget plan would cut Portsmouth D&D funding by $48.6 million from the amount Congress approved for the current budget year.
A DOE spokesperson on Friday said the department had received and is reviewing the letter. The department previously said it remained “committed to the safe and successful cleanup of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant Site.”
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