Photo by ORNL
Oak Ridge Today readers have recently asked about layoffs at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex.
In mid-June, ORNL said there had been about 10 employees who were laid off recently. They were from ORNL’s Energy and Environmental Sciences Directorate.
“The layoffs were part of the normal course of business at the lab,” ORNL communications media manager Morgan McCorkle said in a statement. “We are constantly adjusting the size of the workforce to ensure efficient operations.”
On Thursday, McCorkle said there haven’t been any additional ORNL staff layoffs since then. ORNL has a staff of 4,750, including scientists and engineers in more than 100 disciplines.
Oak Ridge Today has also received a question from a reader about layoffs reported on the Uranium Processing Facility project, or UPF, at Y-12.
Steven Wyatt, public affairs manager for the National Nuclear Security Administration Production Office, said the UPF is approaching 90 percent design completion, and the project is shifting from a predominantly engineering focus to more of a procurement and construction focus.
“Some UPF personnel have completed their assignments and will be released from the project during the coming months, while others will be hired to perform authorized construction activities,” Wyatt said. “This is the normal lifecycle of a construction project, and means the project is making progress and moving forward.”
Officials have said the UPF is still on track to be completed by 2025 at a cost of no more than $6.5 billion. It’s the largest federal construction project in Tennessee since World War II. The design could be 90 percent complete this year, and a cost estimate done after that. Construction could start in the next fiscal year, the NNSA has said.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
Do you appreciate this story or our work in general? If so, please consider a monthly subscription to Oak Ridge Today. See our Subscribe page here. Thank you for reading Oak Ridge Today.
Copyright 2017 Oak Ridge Today. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Leave a Reply