SRS workers brace for layoffs

Missions have been postponed

AIKEN - Layoffs and work delays have led the Savannah River Site into a blurry and uncertain period that has employees and site supporters unsure exactly what the future holds.

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Earlier this month, SRS employees were told that 300 workers will be fired by May. Days before the announcement, the Department of Energy said construction on a fuel-conversion plant that would create 500 jobs will be delayed almost a year, to May 2005, or longer.

A week earlier, DOE officials announced that a decision on where to build a bomb-trigger factory has been delayed indefinitely. That project would add more than 1,000 jobs at the site if it's selected.

"All of those things are not good news," said Mal McKibben, a former SRS manager who runs Citizens for Nuclear Technology Awareness. The group is a big booster of SRS and regularly pushes for new missions at the site.

"We have known for two or three years now that this was coming," Mr. McKibben said of the layoffs. "The sad thing is we were successful in getting new missions, and now all those missions are being delayed."

Knowing that jobs would be lost hasn't made the reality easier for anxious employees.

"They know full well everything is heading down," Mr. McKibben said.

Wayne Gulledge is among hundreds of employees at the site who work in construction. His colleagues have been getting laid off for the past four weeks, but they're considered part time and not included in the site's permanent employment figure.

"Morale is pretty low," he said, while mentioning that 40 people were let go Thursday. "In fact, probably as low as I've seen it since I've been out there (in 1989). Everybody's job-scared."

Westinghouse Savannah River Co., which runs SRS for the Department of Energy, spent months shaping its restructuring plan, which will eliminate roughly $30 million in salary, though not until after this year, a spokesman said. The cuts and severance pay could prove more expensive than regular salaries for the company.

More layoffs are expected beyond this year.

"The jobs out here are changing," Westinghouse President Bob Pedde said. "This is a business. As missions change, as we've completed functions and changed processes, we end up with an imbalance of skills."

The last decade at SRS has been focused on cleaning up previously operational facilities, the need for which is dwindling. If work on new missions doesn't start, Mr. McKibben said, the site's work force could shrink to 4,000 by about 2020. It's at about 13,000 now.

Many employees at Westinghouse and its partner companies at the site are transferring out, but officials couldn't immediately say how many were leaving voluntarily.

Economic developers are looking for ways to stave off a mass exodus. They're trying to put SRS brainpower to work in the private sector.

There are plans to build a hydrogen research lab in Aiken County, and the Savannah River Technology Center, which employs about 1,000 people, does more than half of its work for customers other than DOE, Mr. Pedde said. "The good news is we have new missions," he added.

Politicians in South Carolina and Georgia say they'll continue to push for new jobs at the site.

Rep. Gresham Barrett, R-S.C., has stayed in close contact with DOE officials and said he's urging them to make a decision on the trigger plant sooner rather than later.

"I feel very confident about the future of SRS," he said. "We're in there slugging it out day in and day out to make sure the country is secure and the site gets new missions."

Reach Josh Gelinas at (803)279-6895 or josh.gelinas@augustachronicle.com.

--From the Sunday, February 15, 2004 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle