Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) yesterday called on Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz to request $460 million to fully fund cleanup at the Portsmouth Site in fiscal 2017, and to provide more predictable funding for the site in the future, as hundreds of jobs potentially hang in the balance.
Congress on Oct. 1 passed a continuing resolution that funds the federal government at fiscal 2015 levels through Dec. 11 and includes an anomaly to give DOE the flexibility through its Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning (D&D) Fund to prevent some 500 layoffs that site contractor Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth announced in August. FBP had said a budget shortfall of up to $81 million for the project in fiscal 2016 could force it this fall to lay off up to 36 percent of its roughly 1,400 employees working on D&D at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, in Piketon, Ohio. The government provided approximately $214 million for Portsmouth D&D work in fiscal 2015, approximately $49 million more than what was included in the Senate Appropriations Committee’s May markup of the fiscal 2016 energy appropriations bill.
“The Administration’s commitment to an accelerated site cleanup ensures that our nation maintains its commitment to the people of Southeastern Ohio who for more than 50 years have supported critical enrichment activities,” Brown wrote in a letter sent yesterday to Moniz and Donovan. “Continued cleanup at the site is critical to the economy of Southern Ohio, a region still recovering from the recent economic downturn. These funds will help put people back to work cleaning up the site, reclaiming the site, and setting the stage for future redevelopment and reuse.”
Brown pointed out that budgetary shortfalls have prompted the issuance of 1,000 WARN notices at the site for the last two years, and called on DOE to define a funding stream for Portsmouth clearer than the D&D account, something he called “essential” for Portsmouth to meet its cleanup timelines. “I am concerned that despite undeniable progress at the site, the DOE continues to rely on uranium disposition to fund some cleanup activities and lacks a clear plan for maintaining the current workforce and the pace of site cleanup once the uranium runs out,” Brown wrote. “Given the significant reliance DOE has placed on uranium disposition to fund cleanup activities, I believe DOE must develop a sustainable, long-term plan for cleanup work.”
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