NNSA DIRECTS SITES TO BEGIN SHUTDOWN PLANNING

Contractors running the National Nuclear Security Administration’s various sites began initiating shutdown plans yesterday after direction from the agency established Oct. 21 as the latest date for shutdown, NW&M Monitor has learned. Sites could shut down before then, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Director Parney Albright informed employees in an all-hands meeting yesterday that the lab would have to shut down next week, with all but essential employees being furloughed. B&W Y-12 and B&W Pantex also informed employees yesterday that they were initiating an “orderly shutdown,” with Oct. 17 projected as the last day for non-essential employees at the Y-12 National Security Complex. About 900 of the plant’s 4,800 employees will remain at the site, with a large portion of those coming from the site’s protective forces ranks, NW&M Monitor has learned. “Safety and security are our highest national priorities, and since Congress has not passed an appropriations act and given the continued uncertainty, it is prudent that we act to ensure extended safe and secure operations of our sites,” B&W Y-12 President and General Manager Chuck Spencer said in a message to employees that was nearly identical to one sent out yesterday by B&W Pantex President and General Manager John Woolery. “To that end, we have received direction from the Acting NNSA Administrator [Bruce Held] to initiate an orderly shutdown in support of, at a minimum, obtaining safe and secure status.”