U.S. Department of Energy President-elect Barack Obama has opposed the Nevada waste repository.

The U.S. Energy Dept. is replacing a Bechtel-SAIC joint venture as manager of its planned Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste repository north of Las Vegas.

The change comes at a time of political and financial uncertainty for the project. The estimated completion cost jumped $19 billion from 2007, to $90 billion, and President-elect Barack Obama says he’s dead-set against it unless waste and safety issues are resolved.

USA Repository Services, a team led by the Washington division of URS, with subcontractors Shaw Group Inc. and Areva Federal Services, will take over the job under a $2.5-billion contract announced on Oct. 30. Bechtel-SAIC, the incumbent since 2001, bid unsuccessfully for the new five-year contract, with an additional five-year option, as did a team led by Babcock & Wilcox.

Obama has not favored completion of the site until waste and safety issues are resolved. “I am opposed to Yucca Mountain,” Obama said in January. “I have consistently said that I am opposed to Yucca Mountain, and that will not change.” There is also speculation that he may seek to withdraw its license application that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been reviewing since September, the beginning of an estimated four year process.

DOE is set to brief the three contractor teams on the selection on Nov. 14. Losing bidders, under department rules, then have 10 days to protest the award. USA-RS, as it stands, will assume project control on April 1, one day after Bechtel SAIC’s contract expires, say DOE officials. But the lengthy transition from Bechtel SAIC to USA-RS could begin later this year.

We’re obviously disappointed,” says Jason Bohne, a Bechtel-SAIC spokesman “We're proud of the work we've done there.”

The project would hold up to 77,000 tons of high-level radioactive waste currently stored at 121 temporary sites in 39 states. Spent utility fuel and high-level defense waste would be stored in specially engineered containers housed inside a network of tunnels built deep within the mountain.

USA-RS duties include creating a detailed repository design, operating existing onsite facilities, and supporting construction management staff. Many of the project’s existing technical staff might be hired by USA-RS. It's customary in government-contract transitions to confine most personnel changes to only upper management. But the program’s federal and contractor head count has dropped from about 2,750 workers about four years ago to about 1,700 workers recently, DOE spokesman Allen Benson says. Program officials, however, maintain that employees needed to defend the license application and answer NRC questions will remain aboard. “We have laid a strong foundation for the project,” says Bohne.