President Bush has signed the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act for 2006, which sets the Hanford budget for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1.

The budget cuts fiscal year 2005 spending of close to $2.1 billion by about $315 million.

The project that took the biggest hit is construction of the Waste Treatment Plant, or vitrification plant, at Hanford. It's being built to treat some of the worst waste left from the past production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program.

Funding for the vitrification plant dropped $164 million from the $690 million in the 2005 budget. In a message to workers Tuesday, Jim Henshel, Bechtel National project director for the plant, said management is assessing the reduced budget and expects to announce a plan in the next two weeks.

The Department of Energy contractor announced layoffs and transfers of 230 workers already this month, but that would drop employment to meet only the $626 million budget that had been anticipated earlier in the year. Another $100 million was cut from the budget before it was signed.