Feds consider laying off hundreds of Hanford contractor workers in Eastern WA

The Hanford tank farm contractor notified the Hanford Atomic Metal Trades Council that it is looking to temporarily lay off 733 union workers because of the federal government shutdown.

Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure, or H2C, employs about 2,500 workers.

H2C sent a letter on Wednesday to HAMTC, an umbrella group for 15 unions doing work at Hanford. The letter was discussing directions from the Department of Energy to reduce staffing levels by Oct. 20 to the minimum needed to maintain safety at the Hanford tank farms.

However, by Thursday afternoon that letter had been rescinded as premature and efforts continue to delay any layoffs, although they remain a possibility.

And, if they happen, the number and mix of employees who could temporarily lose work could change from the scenario mentioning 733 layoffs.

The Hanford nuclear site in Eastern Washington has been operating on money carried over from fiscal year 2025 since the new fiscal year started Oct. 1 without a federal budget because of the dispute between Republicans and Democrats in Congress.

Jeffrey McDaniel, the president of HAMTC, told the Tri-City Herald, there was less carry-over money available for work at the Hanford tank farms than for other DOE contractors at Hanford.

H2C is the only Hanford contractor with HAMTC employees that has notified the labor organization of possible layoffs.

Laid-off workers would be called back to work when the federal government reopens.

The H2C letter to HAMTC said layoff notices would be sent by Oct 16 and the last day of employment would be no later than Oct. 19, although those dates no longer appear to be valid.

DOE is trying to keep workers on the job and stretch out the money it has, McDaniel said.

HAMTC is hoping that the shutdown is over by the end of October and that work at Hanford can continue as usual, he said.

That would require Congress to pass, at a minimum, a bill that would extend the spending approved in the fiscal 2025 budget, allowing federal spending for Hanford and other unfunded government work to resume.

“If funding to H2C is restored prior to execution of this nonpermanent layoff, H2C will notify HAMTC of such change and the need to cancel this declaration of excess (workers),” the letter to HAMTC said.

While other Hanford contractors appear to have more carry-over funds available to keep operating longer, the H2C layoffs will affect their union workers.

Hanford has a union “bump and roll” policy, in which a union worker laid off at one contractor can take the job of a less experienced worker at another contractor, who could then be laid off.

If temporary layoffs are needed, the Oct. 8 letter uses a scenario that would eliminate the union positions of 214 nuclear chemical operators, 207 radiological control technicians and 131 industrial hygiene technicians.

The layoffs could also include 44 electricians, 29 instrument specialists, 19 plumber-steamfitters, 15 truck drivers, 13 stationary operating engineers and 13 carpenters.

The remainder of layoffs under the scenario outlined in the Wedensday letter would include less than 10 each of union storekeepers, millwrights, painters, boilermakers, insulators, sign painters, stock and tool workers, material coordinators and quality assurance technicians.

It is not clear how many nonunion workers also could be at risk of losing work, whether through layoffs or furloughs.

Information on union layoffs is available because H2C was required under its collective bargaining agreement to notify HAMTC of its plans.

H2C is responsible for managing 56 million gallons of radioactive and chemical waste held in 177 underground tanks, many of them prone to leaking, until the waste can be treated for disposal.

Its tasks include emptying highly radioactive waste from leak-prone single-shell tanks, some of which are as much as 80 years old, into newer double-shell tanks.

It also is pretreating radioactive tank waste to allow it to be glassified at the Hanford vitrification plant and then piping the pretreated waste to the plant.

On Wednesday, H2C transferred radioactive waste pretreated to include only low activity radioactive waste to the vitrification plant for the first time.

A total of 12,622 gallons were transferred as DOE faces an Oct. 15 deadline to begin turning some of the less radioactive tank waste into a stable glass form.

The waste is left from work at the 580-square-mile Hanford nuclear site adjacent to Richland to produce nearly two-thirds of the plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program from World War II through the Cold War.