Federal employees, embedded contractors and others at Department of Energy sites are now expected to divulge whether they have been vaccinated against COVID-19 — and the Los Alamos National Laboratory is requiring its personnel to be fully vaccinated.
Triad National Security, the lab’s management and operations contract for the National Nuclear Security Administration, disclosed the new requirement on Monday in a press release, making it the first nuclear-weapons prime contractor to announce a vaccine mandate. Lab Director Thomas Mason handed down the order the same day the Food and Drug Administration granted full approval to Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for people as young as 16.
Los Alamos’ mandate applies to “all regular employees and on-site contractors and on-site subcontractors,” including “all employees working on-site, those teleworking, and all new hires,” Mason wrote in a memo to all hands on Monday.
“Once the requirement begins, employees, contractors and subcontractors who do not have a full vaccination card on file with the Laboratory’s Occupational Medicine office will be referred to line management who will work with Human Resources for determination of whether employment will continue,” Los Alamos wrote in its press release.
Meanwhile, the broader Department of Energy announced the changes to its proof-of-vaccination policy in a COVID-19 Workplace Safety Plan updated Aug. 20. Amid growing concern over the COVID-19 variant called Delta and recent surge in new cases of COVID-19, the 14-page DOE plan, viewed by Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, details the agency’s latest efforts to prod a workforce of some 13,000 federal employees and more than 90,000 contractors to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.
“When a Federal employee or onsite support service contractor employee discloses that they are not fully vaccinated or declines to respond or complete the attestation form, DOE will treat that individual as not fully vaccinated for purposes of implementing safety measures, including mask wearing, physical distancing, testing, travel, and quarantine,” according to DOE’s COVID-19 Workplace Safety Plan.
“The method DOE will use to ask about vaccination status will vary depending on the individual’s position as a Federal employee, contractor, or visitor to a DOE site,” and the agency will comply with applicable federal laws, according to the document.
