LANL TO UNVEIL DETAILS OF BUYOUT PLAN TODAY

Los Alamos National Laboratory is expected to reveal the details of its Voluntary Separation Program at an all-hands meeting today. Laboratory Director Charlie McMillan announced the 1:30 p.m. (Mountain Time) meeting in a message to employees yesterday, but did not reveal any information about the program, which lab officials hope will trim its workforce by 400 to 800 employees. The details of the program have to be approved by the National Nuclear Security Administration, and a lab official told NW&M Monitor that the program is likely to be a “standard” program with severance provided to employees interested in leaving the lab tied to their service time. The lab last trimmed its workforce through a Voluntary Separation Program in 2008, when 430 workers took buyouts and another 140 left the lab through normal attrition.