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Hearing is mixed bag for Piketon DOE site workers

News promising for cleanup, bleaker for Centrifuge

Chris Balusik
Chillicothe Gazette

PIKETON — Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said Tuesday that officials are “close” to a plan to head off layoffs at the cleanup of the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant through at least Dec. 11, but sounded a dire note on the future of the American Centrifuge Plant.

During a hearing Tuesday of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Moniz was pressed by U.S. Sen. Rob Portman for a commitment on whether the secretary would use his spending authority granted by a continuing resolution approved last week to keep planned layoffs at the cleanup work and American Centrifuge from taking place.

Moniz would not offer a direct yes or no with regard to the cleanup work, prompting Portman to express the frustration he said was being felt by those working at the DOE site in Piketon.

“You can’t even give us a commitment there won’t be layoffs between now and Dec. 11?” Portman asked.

“I feel very confident that we will get there,” Moniz responded. “I need a little more time to finish the plan and notify the contractor. That’s what we are working toward — no involuntary layoffs during the CR for the D&D work.”

Moniz went on to say that the idea would be to have a plan that would continue adequate funding through the next fiscal year as well, at which point Portman asked for a commitment for Fiscal Year 2017. The secretary said it is too premature in the budget process to be able to offer that sort of commitment.

Between 325 and 500 jobs involved with the cleanup work in Piketon have been targeted for potential layoffs as early as Oct. 22 if funding conditions don’t change. The continuing resolution extending DOE’s spending authority for its cleanup projects through Dec. 11 was believed to have created a temporary reprieve for those jobs — if Moniz authorized that funding for the project continue unchanged — but officials for Fluor-BWXT, the lead contractor at the site, confirmed Tuesday afternoon that they were still awaiting guidance from DOE.

In absence of guidance, the contractor was still proceeding late last week with preparations for the planned layoffs. As of Friday, 44 employees had taken advantage of a voluntary separation from the company.

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown said Moniz told him Monday evening that the cleanup jobs would be saved.

“This evening, Secretary Moniz guaranteed that no jobs would be lost at the Piketon plant for the duration of the spending bill passed last week,” Brown said in a release sent Monday night. “Southeast Ohio’s economy relies on continued cleanup progress, and that can only continue with the dedicated workforce that has put so much time into ensuring that this site can attract future economic development.”

The language placed into the continuing resolution states that money in the Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning Fund may be allocated up to the amount currently being spent on DOE decontamination projects in order to “avoid disruption of continuing projects or activities.” It also, however, gives the Energy secretary the authority to determine whether the funds will be used or how they will be used, with the requirement that he notify the appropriations committees in the Senate and House within three days of each use of that authority.

While there appears to be a light at the end of the tunnel for workers on the cleanup project, Moniz’s comments in Tuesday’s committee hearing regarding the American Centrifuge Plant carried dark tidings for employees on that part of the Piketon site. Centrifuge employees have received WARN notices of pending layoffs slated to begin in mid-November after DOE announced a decision to de-fund American Centrifuge operations and shift resources to continue developing the centrifuge technology at a facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Even though the continuing resolution gives Moniz the authority to continue funding work in Piketon for the centrifuge facility through Dec. 11, he has not declared an intent to do so.

In fact, when questioned by Portman about the American Centrifuge and the national security needs the plant’s product meets as the only existing U.S.-owned source of enriched uranium, Moniz said the decision to de-fund the Pike County facility was “unfortunate” but necessary. He echoed a statement issued by DOE when the de-funding announcement was made, stating that while the centrifuge was valuable in helping detect and correct issues with the centrifuge technology, it is no longer in the taxpayers’ best interest to keep it running.

“Two things led to that — I have to say unfortunate, I completely agree, for the site — decision,” Moniz said. “Number one is that scrubbing really hard on the need for enriched uranium using American-origin technology, we were able to extend the time frame (of available enriched uranium for national security interests) very, very dramatically.

“Secondly, the technical judgment made is that continuing to spin those (centrifuge) machines will not give us any more technical knowledge on the technology that we will preserve. We are not pulling the plug (on the technology) — it’s hard to justify taxpayers paying $50 million (more) for something we think will have little to no technological return.”

In closing statements to the committee, Portman also took issue with the fact that a report due from DOE to Congress in April addressing factors that would have come into play with the decision on the American Centrifuge was not presented to him until Monday night, about two weeks after the decision had already been made.