EnergySolutions Cuts TRU Workforce Further
WC Monitor
7/3/2014
EnergySolutions, a subcontractor at Los Alamos National Laboratory involved in transuranic waste disposition, this week laid off 26 workers as a result of $20 million in funding being reallocated to the ongoing effort to reopen the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. “The number laid off on June 30 was reduced from a projected 58 to 40 because of LANL’s need for more support than originally contemplated,” according to EnergySolutions spokesman Mark Walker. “Of the 40, EnergySolutions was able to find work for 14 at other projects outside of New Mexico. Therefore, the total laid off June 30 was 26.”
EnergySolutions Vice President Miles Smith explained the funding situation in a statement made before the layoffs. “We anticipate having to release an additional 58 personnel by June 30, 2014,” he said. “This is being driven by the fact that $20M of LANL’s 2014 Environmental Management funding has been reallocated to pay for the WIPP incident Technical Assistance Team made up of national laboratory personnel from across DOE and for continued storage of 113 containers of waste at WCS.”
Efforts are currently underway to determine the cause of a radiological release at WIPP earlier this year and to move forward with reopening the facility for waste disposition. As a result of the current WIPP shutdown, DOE has moved to store some containers of transuranic waste from Los Alamos at Waste Control Specialists’ Texas facility. This week’s layoff follow one round in early June that led to 23 workers losing their jobs, and a round that occurred on March 30 when EnergySolutions cut 34 jobs at LANL as it completed waste processing for the Department of Energy’s ‘3,706 campaign.’
