The National Nuclear Security Administration in August confirmed that four more employees of the nuclear security enterprise died of COVID-19 during an explosive summer case surge, even as some federal contractors took their most forceful workforce vaccination measures to date.
In the final week of August, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) had 419 confirmed, active cases of COVID-19 across its labs, plants and sites. That’s nearly 225 more active cases than the civilian nuclear weapons agency had in the final week of July and over 300 more active cases than it had in the final week of August 2020, well before the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in early 2021.
The four fatal COVID-19 cases confirmed in August brought the NNSA enterprise’s known pandemic fatalities to 20 since the disease was first detected in the U.S. in January 2020. One of the fatalities announced in August was a worker at the Nevada National Security Site, two were workers at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, another was a worker at the Kansas City National Security Campus in Missouri.
Vaccine data across the NNSA enterprise, where available, showed relatively few new inoculations at nuclear weapon sites in the month of August. NNSA sites were among the first employers in the country to offer shots to their workforce and many sites already had high vaccination rates before the summer COVID surge.
In mid-August, with an 85% vaccination rate among site personnel, Los Alamos National Laboratory management and operations contractor Triad National Security came for the holdouts, issuing a vaccine mandate for any on-site workers paid through the company’s prime contract with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Those who are not vaccinated by Oct. 15 could be subject to termination.
This week, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions — the Fluor-led management and operations contractor for the Savannah River Site where the NNSA harvests tritium and is building a new plutonium pit plant — also handed down a vaccination mandate. DOE’s Environmental Management office owns that contract, through which the NNSA passes funding for weapons programs.
In an August email to all hands, new NNSA Administrator Jill Hruby said that “[t]he authority and decision to mandate vaccines as a condition of employment at our labs, plants, and sites rests with our Management & Operating partners.”
At NNSA’s Nevada National Security Site, around 2,000 people had been fully vaccinated by the final week of August: fewer than 10 more compared with the final week of July, a spokesperson for the Honeywell-led site contractor Mission Support and Test Services.
“COVID-19 vaccines are not mandatory [but] employees are encouraged to get the vaccine if they are able to,” the Mission Support and Test Services spokesperson wrote in an email Aug. 13. “The health and safety of our workforce – and by extension, the American public – is the NNSS’ top priority, and we remain fully compliant with directives from NNSA, DOE, and the President.”
At the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, and the Y-12 National Security Site in Oak Ridge, Tenn., “[o]ur COVID-19 vaccination policies are developed in coordination with the National Nuclear Security Administration and the U.S. Department of Energy, and we will implement any new directives when they are provided,” a spokesperson for Bechtel National-led sites contractor Consolidated Nuclear Security wrote in an email.
At Pantex, about 1,950 people were fully vaccinated as of the final week of August, up about 50 compared with the final week of July. At Y-12, about 4,350 people were fully vaccinated as of the final week of August, up about 200 from the final week of July in the largest surge of any NNSA site that reports vaccination data.
At the Kansas City National Security Campus in Missouri, vaccination is “highly encouraged, but up to the individual,” a spokesperson for site contractor Honeywell Federal Manufacturing and Technologies wrote in an email to Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor.
“Sandia strongly encourages employees to get vaccinated to protect their health and help provide the safest work environment possible,” a spokesperson for the labs network wrote in an email in late August. However, “[a]t this time, vaccines are not mandated.”
Nevertheless, more than 13,950 people had been vaccinated at Sandia, including the Albuquerque and California campuses, by the second-to-last week of August, the most recent for which data were available at deadline.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory declined to comment about its vaccination policy throughout August, or to say how many of its employees had been vaccinated.
