Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee member Rob Portman (R-Ohio) is considering whether to block the confirmation of Victoria Baecher Wassmer to be under secretary of energy for management and performance, largely because of what yesterday he said were broken commitments by Energy Department leadership to commit adequate funding for decontamination and decommissioning work at the Portsmouth Site in Piketon, Ohio. “He is leaving that possibility open,” a congressional staffer said in an email after the hearing. Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant D&D contractor Fluor-BWXT in August announced that an anticipated $81 million budget shortfall to fund the project in fiscal 2016 would force up to 500 layoffs. 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 D&D Fund to prevent Portsmouth D&D layoffs.
Currently the Federal Aviation Administration’s assistant administrator for finance and management, Wassmer told Portman and his committee during a confirmation hearing yesterday that she would be “happy to work with” Portman on the issue if she’s confirmed, but the senator questioned her intentions for work at Portsmouth. “I would say to that question that you would be happy to work with me that when I supported [Energy] Secretary [Ernest] Moniz in his confirmation, he made that same commitment,” Portman responded. “When I supported Deputy [Energy] Secretary [Elizabeth] Sherwood-Randall, I got that commitment. When I supported [DOE] Assistant Secretary [for Environmental Management Monica] Regalbuto, I got the same commitment. They all made assurances during their confirmation hearings that they would work with me, and they haven’t. We need to see that follow through. Frankly, I not much in the mood to do other confirmations until I get real commitments on this.”
The staffer said Portman “wasn’t happy” with Wassmer’s and DOE assistant secretary for nuclear energy nominee John Kotek’s answers about funding for Portsmouth D&D and the American Centrifuge Program, respectively. American Centrifuge contractor Centrus in September confirmed that DOE would no longer provide funding for the Piketon, Ohio, piece of the program, and officials have said all ACP operations will be limited to development activities at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee at a cost of $35 million per year. Centrus employs about 300 technical and other staff in Piketon. American Centrifuge is an advanced uranium enrichment facility intended to produce low-enriched uranium. The staffer added that Portman plans to privately meet with Wassmer and Kotek soon, and he expects them to “provide more specifics on how they plan to work with Ohio.”
