Help sought for ex-Yucca workers - News

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Jan. 30, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Help sought for ex-Yucca workers

Congressional delegation tries to soften blow

By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU

Yucca Mountain: Nuclear Waste in Nevada

WASHINGTON -- Seeking to soften the blow for workers losing jobs at Yucca Mountain, Nevada lawmakers on Tuesday announced a bid to boost retraining while they pursue other strategies to create more tech jobs in the state.

The five-member delegation urged the Labor Department to step in with emergency job transition funding as the first several dozen employees of Energy Department contractors complete their tenure at the proposed nuclear waste site this week.

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Five hundred workers or more will be targeted for layoffs as DOE restructures from a deep budget cut passed by Congress in December, program managers have said.

"These are government-related jobs. It is only fair we have some compassion for these people," Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said at the end of a delegation meeting. "These jobs are hard to come by. A number of them are engineers, scientists and skilled labor."

A $108 million budget cut was arranged by Reid and supported by Nevada leaders who say the Yucca Mountain Project to bury highly radioactive nuclear waste 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas poses dire health, safety and economic threats.

Reid said the job losses, while unfortunate, were anticipated.

"We were all very happy when we were able to get the money cut," he said. "But there have been some hardships as a result."

The lawmakers signed a letter asking Labor Secretary Elaine Chao to make the Yucca project eligible to receive funding from a National Emergency Grant program designed to assist displaced workers. The state or a county could apply for money available after a layoff of more than 50 people at a single site, according to the Labor Department.

As Nevada officials continue efforts to downsize Yucca, "there are many valuable workers who will need to transition to other jobs," declared the letter to Chao, which was signed by Reid and Sen. John Ensign, and Reps. Shelley Berkley, Jon Porter and Dean Heller.

"We want to keep these types of jobs in Nevada," Berkley said, while Heller likened the effort to the economic stimulus bill Congress is moving to pass.

"People in Nevada want to stop Yucca Mountain, but we also feel compassion for the people who are working there today," Ensign said.

Sixty-three workers at the Yucca site who received layoff notices earlier this month are completing their employment this week, according to DOE officials. Another group of more than 100 will receive 30-day job notices next week.

Ward Sproat, director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, said earlier this month that at least 500 workers will be laid off in the coming months as DOE resizes the project to fit its scaled-back funding from Congress.

The DOE and its contractors employed 2,400 full-time positions on the project before the layoffs.

Reid proposed diverting a portion of the money cut from the Yucca budget, perhaps 20 percent, into worker placement and retraining in Nevada and other parts of the country.

Porter suggested the state develop research capabilities in nuclear waste reprocessing.

Ensign said he and Reid are exploring legislation that would encourage broader use of Nevada Test Site programs that could create engineering and other technical jobs.

Cost-sharing rules make it expensive for federal agencies and private companies to conduct research on the sprawling desert range, Ensign said.

The test site hosts programs for anti-terrorism training, nuclear weapons maintenance, low-level nuclear waste disposal and an area on Frenchman Flat 75 miles northwest of Las Vegas called the Nonproliferation Test and Evaluation Complex. Formerly known as the Hazmat Spill Center, it is the world's largest complex for field-testing releases of toxic chemicals and biological material.

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

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Please enter your name Name: Please enter your email Email: Please enter a comment COMMENTS : (word count limit is 300) You have reached the maximum number of words allowed Current Word Count: Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background. Elizabeth Jones wrote on January 30, 2008 03:54 PM: Senator Reid needs to get a life. He is so off base it isn't even funny any more. It is not "some of these people who are Engineers and Scientists and Skilled Labor" - IT IS ALL OF THE PEOPLE WHO WORK THIS SITE. RETRAINING IS NOT AN OPTION FOR THESE PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS, SCIENTISTS AND MANAGEMENT EMPLOYEES. Is he suggesting that we go down to the strip and train to become dealers or cocktail waitress? I don't think he realizes the caliber of people who work on this project or the income of these people who in turn contribute to the economy of this State. Ray wrote on January 30, 2008 01:18 PM: C'mon, Dave, that would make TOO much sense! LOL! While reprocessing is a viable technology (it's been done for years in other countries), it's not politically popular here. Even though it would create more electricity, hydrogen and medical isotopes, there would still be a waste that would have to be sequestered away for 300-500 years. 500 years sounds a lot more acceptable than a million, wouldn’t you agree? If you ask my opinion, they should locate a reprocessing facility at Yucca Mountain, sell the energy at market prices, thus eliminating much of the tax deficit this state is currently dealing with and store that secondary waste within the repository. In doing so, Nevada becomes economically sound, an energy exporter, with a strong high tech job base that our kids can enjoy and prosper from for years to come. People need to quit listening to those with political agendas and start doing their own research into this topic. Dave S wrote on January 30, 2008 12:00 PM: It is refreshing to read these comments. Obviously, there are a lot of folks who are well informed and understand that the issues associated with Yucca Mountain are not scientific but political. I appreciate Porter's recommendation that we should be more involved in research on nuclear waste reprocessing. Why is it that eleven other metropolitan areas in the nation with nuclear facilities have opted to do exactly that via the GNEP program. Where is Nevada? Could it be a political threat stopped Nevada's involvement? (the answer is yes!). Impeach Harry wrote on January 30, 2008 11:18 AM: If only Nevadans would research the issue... The Yucca Mountain Project is a matter of Law and the ONLY entity empowered to judge the suitability of the site for construction and eventual receipt of nuclear waste is the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The site will be safe people; otherwise, the NRC will not issue the facility a License to begin construction. Leave politics out of it and let the expert scientists and engineers on the Yucca Mountain Project put together a License Application that presents its safety case and then let the expert scientists and engineers that work for the NRC make their Licensing decisions. Get the facts people and make an informed choice; not just an ignorant guess based on the talking heads that simply want your vote! LV Insider wrote on January 30, 2008 10:07 AM: People need to get informed on the Yucca project. The people being eliminated are not construction workers. Construction hasn't started at Yucca, because Harry has done his best to keep it from starting. All the delays have cost taxpayers billions (that's right, billions) over the years, while the government's (i.e. taxpayer's) liability for not taking waste is billions more and growing. Now, Harry cuts jobs, brags about it, feels bad about, and makes empty promises with the rest of the delegation on how they'll solve it. Our people in Congress need to be held accountable. When you vote, remember that the next job they come after could be yours. Dennis A. L. wrote on January 30, 2008 10:04 AM: DOE and Bechtel-SAIC automatically helps laid-off workers of the Yucca Mountain repository project. Senator Harry Reid already knows this. Nevada senators specially senator Harry Reid again is playing politics pandering to the people to make it look like he is making any effort to assist these laid off workers. Politics..politics nobody wins in politics. ron wrote on January 30, 2008 09:15 AM: So now Harry Reid is requesting that the nation's taxpayers should foot the bill to support the people who lost their jobs directly through his actions. Talk about a waste of taxpayer money. These people all had good jobs, and would still have them if not for his actions. Now, in addition to costing these people their jobs, he and the rest of the Nevada delegation think the taxpayers should pay the costs of supporting them? This is really shameful. yucca_insider wrote on January 30, 2008 08:26 AM: No LittleBird, there's a huge difference. If the job were complete, as Congress promised Americans it would be by 1998, that would be one thing. Or if Congress changed the law, or if simple market forces ended these jobs. No, the difference is that one senator is nullifying the will of Congress and the consensus of scientists worldwide. The fact is, Yucca Mountain exists because of federal law-- the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. Since 1983, Americans who use nuclear-generated electricity have paid 16 billion dolllars through their utility bills to build Yucca Mountain. With interest, that money is now $20 billion and the balance sits unused. Science and the law should decide Yucca's fate, not one senator. William Bonzy wrote on January 30, 2008 06:54 AM: Let me get this straight. Insane Harry Reid gets them all fired and now he wants to get them new jobs. That way he can "Look" like he cares which he doesn't. What he really looks like is embarrassing and stupid. How did this crazy man get elected. I'll bet he won't next time. LittleBird wrote on January 30, 2008 06:15 AM: The only difference from the government contractor people that lost their jobs and the thousands of construction workers that lose their jobs when the jobs end, is that the goverment construction workers wants lifetime jobs. Nobody ever jumped through hoops to make sure I had a job and could make my payments when I got a lay-off. That's what we paid into unemployment for. Quit pandering these people and let them get a life. Nobody took them to raise.