PHOENIX — The Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Richland, Wash., lost 51 employees to federal job cuts so far, a senior manager at the nuclear cleanup complex said here Wednesday.
At the same time, Delmar Noyes, a senior DOE manager at the former plutonium production site, said having a single Hanford Field Office helps blunt the impact of the job cuts being implemented governmentwide by the Donald Trump administration.
The loss of 51 people represents about 15% of the Hanford federal workforce, Noyes said during a panel discussion at the Waste Management Symposia. The figure includes both the so-called “fork-in-the-road” buyouts as well as loss of probationary staff.
“Obviously, a lot of individuals with a lot of experience walked out the door,” said Noyes, assistant manager for tank waste at Hanford.
At the same time, the impact is less than it would be if there were still two Hanford field offices. The Richland Operations Office and the Office of River Protection merged into one, the Hanford Field Office on Oct. 1, 2024. Noyes noted. This gives federal managers at Hanford a little more flexibility to move the remaining people around as needed, he added.
In addition, DOE will rely more heavily on its contractor partners, Noyes said. Noyes was responding to a question from Dee Gray with Hanford contractor Navarro-ATL. Gray moderated the session on Hanford Site issues.
