Oregon Public Broadcasting

In Washington State’s southcentral desert country a massive plant is going up at Hanford.

The plant is supposed to eventually treat highly radioactive waste and cook the caustic mixture into more stable glass logs. But Tuesday the company building that plant announced it will be laying off about 80 people.

That’s despite a new influx of cash expected from the federal stimulus package. Richland correspondent Anna King reports.

Locals call it the Vit, short for Vitrification Plant. Hanford’s Waste Treatment Plant is the largest federal Department of Energy project being framed up in the nation.

Check out our map of recent layoffs around the Northwest

It’s meant about 3,000 white and blue collar jobs to the Tri-Cities economy.

Now international contractor, Bechtel announced that the plant’s design is about 70 percent complete and many of the construction materials for the project have been secured.

Company spokeswoman Suzanne Heaston says that means Bechtel won’t need about 80 engineers and other staff.

Suzanne Heaston: “While reductions, layoffs are always stressful for employees and their families. When you work on a job like this you do understand that the project will be completed at some point.”

Heaston says the money saved from these layoffs will be used to hire other workers in different fields.

The Vit plant should be completed in about seven years.