Tuesday, Oct. 07, 2008

Hanford Atomic Metal Trades Council critical of Department of Energy

By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer

Reducing the role of Hanford's workers in handling radioactive wastes would violate organized labor agreements and squander taxpayer money, the Hanford Atomic Metal Trades Council contends.

The issue raised by HAMTC, the umbrella organization that represents an array of Hanford's union workers, also came up at the Hanford State of the Site meeting last week.

During the meeting last week, workers asked DOE for answers on what the changes would mean to Hanford workers and questioned DOE's claims of increased efficiency.

Until now, they've prepared transuranic waste -- typically debris contaminated with plutonium -- for shipment to a national repository in New Mexico.

But that work is not under the new cleanup contract covering central Hanford that took effect last week. Instead, the Department of Energy plans to have the work done by the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant Central Characterization Project based in Carlsbad, N.M. The work includes characterizing the waste and certifying it meets standards for disposal in New Mexico.

In addition, DOE plans to soon send about 1,000 drums of transuranic waste to the Idaho National Laboratory for compaction rather than having compaction or other packaging work done at Hanford.

The work that is planned to be done by Carlsbad's Central Characterization Project is covered by Hanford's collective bargaining agreement, wrote Dave Molnaa, HAMTC president, in a letter to Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman in late September.

It's unclear exactly how the Carlsbad project would do the work and workers at the State of the Site meeting last week received little information. DOE also has provided little information since the meeting.

But Molnaa wrote, "The utilization of an inexperienced transient work force from the WIPP/CCP contract will surely increase the potential for unsafe work practices resulting in an environmental disaster."

Giving the work to the Central Characterization Project violates the bargaining agreement, which requires every effort be made to provide employment for Hanford bargaining unit employees before work is contracted out, Molnaa wrote.

He believes involuntary layoffs of about 110 union employees are planned for November and that more workers could lose their jobs in March, he wrote.

Hanford workers have been doing the work planned to be shifted to the Carlsbad project for almost a decade, and a significant amount of federal money has been spent to train them, Molnaa wrote. Anyone brought to Hanford to do the work would be required to complete training specific to Hanford, he wrote.

"This redundancy is a blatant disregard and misuse of federal funds," he wrote.

"You are going to displace in-state workers with out-of-state workers," charged Hanford worker Kelly Schmidt at the State of the Site meeting.

He also questioned why the change was not included in a draft request for bids on a new Hanford contract.

Changes are not being made to take work away from Hanford employees, but as part of waste issue decisions coordinated nationally, Dave Brockman, manager of the DOE Hanford Richland Operations Office, said at the State of the Site meeting.

Workers also questioned DOE statements that sending some transuranic waste from Hanford to the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Facility in Idaho for compaction and then shipment directly to WIPP would save DOE money.

DOE could take advantage of economies of scale and reduce its overall cost by standardizing processes in the DOE complex and in some cases consolidating work to the Idaho program, Brockman said in an earlier note to an employee.

"The advantage to the Hanford site is that most of these services will be provided to Hanford without using Hanford cleanup dollars," Brockman wrote. "So the project's objectives move forward, but the associated funding is freed up to be used on other Hanford cleanup work."

DOE plans to shift Hanford money from cleanup of central Hanford, including transuranic waste work, to finish cleanup of Hanford along the Columbia River.

"(It) makes good sense, is the right focus on risk reduction and will increase the confidence of Congress and the administration that Hanford is a worthy funding investment," Brockman wrote.

w Annette Cary: 582-1533; acary@ tricityherald.com