By WAYNE ALLEN

PDT Staff Writer

Officials at Fluor-B&W Portsmouth, the Decontamination and Decommission (D&D) contractor at Piketon, have expressed concerns about how is project is going to be funded in 2013. That fiscal year starts Oct. 1.

Dennis Carr, deputy program manager, Fluor-B&W Portsmouth and Joel Bradburne, Department of Energy Portsmouth Site Lead, expressed these concerns to the Scioto County Commissioners.

“This year from a funding perspective looks relatively good,” Carr said. “There is a concern across the entire government about funding levels for next year, not just for this project. Everybody is on notice that there might be a significant dip in funding for next year. This information has us evaluating what would be the implications to our project and our staffing levels.”

Carr said it needs to be a regional effort to unify and influence funding decisions in Washington.

“Right now we do not know what those numbers are but we are not expecting good things for ‘13 at this point,” Carr said.

Carr said Fluor-B&W Portsmouth is working with Ohio’s Congressional delegation to secure funding.

“We know that our Congressional delegation is working to ensure the Site has viable funding levels to complete the cleanup at Piketon by 2024,” Carr said.

Fluor-B&W Portsmouth was awarded a contract from the U.S. Department of Energy in August 2010 to complete the decontamination and decommission of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon. The contract is valued at $2 billion over 10 years.