The INEEL miscalculated the money it needs this year to meet cleanup promises by at least $37 million, according to documents obtained by the Post Register.
A memo written to the Department of Energy in December outlining how the contractor planned to reshuffle money suggests as many as 370 jobs could be affected by the shortfall. It doesn't say whether those will be cut, employees will be reassigned or positions will simply go unfilled.
After announcing a hiring freeze six weeks ago, Bechtel BWXT Idaho officials have refused to elaborate on its budget problems. Since then there have been widespread rumors about early retirement offers or layoffs, but site managers have confirmed nothing.
A letter released to the Post Register this week under a Freedom of Information Act request says the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory ran into $37 million in unforeseen costs in trying to meet an upcoming deadline to ship nuclear waste out of Idaho.
If the site hadn't been saddled with expensive delays and permit changes at a nuclear waste repository in New Mexico, the $451 million cleanup budget approved by Congress for this year would have been sufficient, it said.
Bechtel has now asked the Department of Energy for permission to transfer money from other cleanup and waste management projects to cover the additional costs of shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.
State and congressional officials were told the shuffling wouldn't jeopardize any other significant cleanup projects or milestones in the court-ordered settlement agreement with the state of Idaho. But a memo written in early December by Bechtel's chief financial officer suggests otherwise.
Paul Rosenkoetter wrote that the INEEL needs $37 million in additional funding, an 8 percent increase over the original cleanup budget, to meet all its commitments this year. Safety and security programs need an additional $5 million.
He said, for instance, the INEEL might have to defer maintenance and run equipment that controls contamination until it fails, which could cause chemicals or radioactive materials to be released to the environment.
The memo also predicts a $7.8 million funding gap in the site's high-level waste program, which would delay designing a new facility to treat that highly radioactive waste.
It says that could force the INEEL to renegotiate a court-enforceable deadline to have all the liquid waste out of underground tanks sitting above the state's largest source of drinking water by 2012.
Susan Steiger, Bechtel general manager for environmental management programs, said Wednesday the contractor had made progress in the past three months to minimize the impacts of the budget shortfall.
Not having additional money, in many cases, would mean the site would have to pursue temporary fixes to problems, rather than being able to afford permanent solutions, Steiger said.
Kathleen Trever, director of the state of Idaho INEEL oversight program, said the consequences outlined in the memo of taking money from other projects were considerably more serious than what the state had been led to believe.
INEEL officials told her as recently as Wednesday morning that the funding would be moved from projects that weren't critical or from pots of money that the site otherwise wouldn't use this year.
But the memo says that, for instance, the budget crunch could force the INEEL to delay emptying a tank containing sludges, PCBs, uranium, plutonium and hazardous chemicals, which has rising liquid levels inside. If the problem goes unchecked, it could overflow and spill, the memo said.
Trever said today INEEL officials informed regulators that there was a budget problem with that particular tank - the first time it had been mentioned.
"That is of concern. They're giving the policy people one story and they're beginning to give the project people another story," she said.
Trever said she wasn't sure whether the impacts described in the memo were real, or whether the INEEL was describing worst-case scenarios to get a budget increase from the DOE. It could be like Yellowstone threatening to close campgrounds if it doesn't get more money from Congress, she said.
"I would certainly hope they come discuss their priorities if these types of things are some of the repercussions of the funding shifts," she said. "This has never been the scenario that we've been presented with. This was not the scenario that was described to me this morning when I asked the question."
Ron King, communications director for DOE-Idaho, said Wednesday the agency agreed with Bechtel that the concerns were valid. He said the fund-shifting request was being considered at DOE headquarters.
The memo also outlines the number of jobs associated with the funding gaps, although it doesn't say what would happen to those employees.
While about 50 additional workers would be added to the WIPP project, the memo indicates there may be more than 370 other jobs affected by the budget shortfall.
That includes 35 positions in the high-level waste program, 86 in infrastructure, 250 in spent fuel handling and 43 in safety and security programs.
Steiger said that means, in some cases, positions for new projects might not be hired. The spent fuel workers are scheduled to move to other projects, as funding allows.
"It's certainly our intention and hope to reassign people to other work at the site as projects are completed," she said. "The thing that makes that more difficult is that the nature of the work that we're doing here at the INEEL is changing."
Bechtel officials have not discussed what other options they're considering to solve staffing and budget problems, saying the company will inform workers of any decisions first.
Former contractor Lockheed Martin was able to save $3.5 million a month by offering employees early retirement or voluntary separation packages in 1995, shortly after it took over. About 1,200 workers took them up on the offers to leave the site.
Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, who has been working with other House members who have DOE sites in their districts, said that group will meet with Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham to discuss funding concerns on March 22.
The House Nuclear Cleanup Caucus wrote a joint letter to Abraham this month, expressing worries about flat cleanup budgets coupled with increasing demands at DOE sites across the country.
"I'm very concerned about possible funding shortfalls at the INEEL, both in the current fiscal year and the future," Simpson said Wednesday. "I have asked him to work with us to assure growth in the (cleanup) program because of the commitments that DOE has to our state."
INEEL and environment reporter Jennifer Langston
can be reached at 542-6746, or via
e-mail at jlangston@idahonews.com
source: http://www.headwatersnews.org/pr.ineelshortfall.html 4mar01
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