UCOR announces 21 more subcontractor layoffs

Posted at 11:45 pm October 2, 2012
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

UCOR announced that 21 staff support subcontractors were laid off Monday, and more subcontractor and trade jobs could be cut later this week.

“This is to restructure the workforce to meet our changing needs as work is completed, and also to stay within expected funding for Fiscal Year 2013,” the company said in a statement. “No UCOR employees are being affected.”

UCOR is the U.S. Department of Energy’s cleanup contractor in Oak Ridge.

In September, UCOR announced 41 employees had been laid off at the former K-25 site, now renamed the East Tennessee Technology Park or Heritage Center. Thirty-five of those employees worked on the K-25 Building demolition, and six worked on the K-27 project, UCOR spokesman Wayne McKinney said.

The company’s statement this week said UCOR still plans to demolish the north end of the massive K-25 Building and deactivate the technetium-99 part of the building’s east end.

McKinney said the employees laid off in September also worked for subcontractors, and the job reductions were part of the normal ebb and flow of subcontracting.

UCOR recently announced that it had completed demolition work on the east wing of the K-25 Building and was preparing to demolish the north end. K-27 is being prepared for demolition but is not yet being demolished, McKinney said.

The K-25 site is located in west Oak Ridge, and it was built to enrich uranium as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project during World War II. It’s now being converted into a massive industrial park.

The federal government’s Fiscal Year 2013 began Monday.

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