KENTUCKY’S
KING
are holding onto a bygone era. McConnell may not have been loyal to
his moderate roots or conservative
orthodoxy, but he has been loyal to
the jobs at the uranium enrichment
plant to the point of absurdity.
In March 2011, McConnell told
then-Energy Secretary Steven Chu
that the Paducah plant “happens to
be the economic engine of far Western Kentucky.” Once upon a time,
it was. But the number of jobs at
the Paducah plant have dwindled
steadily over the past few decades.
Today there are only about 1,100
production employees, down by
about 100 from two years ago.
This spring, the government
contractor USEC announced that
it would shutter production at
Paducah. McConnell, along with
Sen. Paul and Rep. Ed Whitfield
(R-Ky.), immediately released a
statement indicating that they
wanted the plant to continue reenriching depleted uranium. And
they may succeed in 2013 — as
they did in 2011 — in persuading USEC and the Department of
Energy to keep the plant on life
support for another few years. But
the enrichment has already ceased
and becomes more difficult to restart the longer the plant remains
idle. Workers have received of-
HUFFINGTON
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ficial notices from USEC that layoffs are weeks away.
“During its tenure on the
site, USEC has built a strong record of safely and effectively
following radiological and environmental regulations,” USEC
spokeswoman Georgann Lookofsky told HuffPost. “We’re committed to return the plant to DOE
in a condition that complies with
the terms of our lease” and all
“environmental, health, safety
and regulatory requirements.”
Allan Rhodes Jr., who serves on
the Paducah Board of Commissioners and owns a coffee shop in
town, thinks McConnell has been
missing in action on the plant
closing. “Now when we need him
the most visibly, I don’t see him
leading the charge,” Rhodes says.
“I’m sure his life is pretty sweet.”
The plant workers’ union is
beginning to question their members’ past support for McConnell.
Jim Key, the union vice president,
says he hasn’t heard from McConnell’s office since April. “Inactivity
tells me and no communication
tells me he’s given up on Paducah,” Key says.
McConnell can only save jobs at
the plant by essentially authorizing busywork. If the Department of
Energy wanted to put money into
nuclear power, it could do so in far
more efficient ways, and could do