Meet the 112th | LANL Announces Planned Staff Reductions

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Feb. 21–Some 400 to 800 workers will be leaving Los Alamos National Laboratory this spring — preferably by choice, the lab announced Tuesday.

Lab Director Charlie McMillan told workers the staff reduction plan has been sent to the National Nuclear Security Administration for approval, calling it a “voluntary separation program.”

This chunk will be taken from the 7,585 permanent employees at LANL, explained spokesman Fred deSousa. It will not affect students, post-doctoral, term or union workers, he said, noting that those groups bring LANL’s current employment to 11,127 people.

“We are taking these actions now in an attempt to reduce the risks of involuntary layoffs,” said McMillan in a news release. “When combined with a suppressed attrition rate for the past three years, our current budget and future outlook require significant cost-cutting.”

The lab’s budget for the current fiscal year, at $2.2 billion, is $300 million lower than the previous year, and no growth is expected in future budgets, according to its official news release.

Reaction to the news was mixed.

Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., noted that a growing federal debt necessitates belt-tightening.

“Given the amount of federal resources New Mexico receives, austerity is unfortunately going to affect our state,” he said via email. “LANL’s workforce is exemplary, performing extremely important work on behalf of our country and I am certain the lab will remain strong for decades to come.”

But given the effect of LANL employment and contracting on northern New Mexico, some concerns were raised about the ripple effect through those communities.

“The governor is very concerned about the potential impact of these federal cuts on the economy of northern New Mexico,” emailed Scott Darnell, spokesman for Gov. Susana Martinez . “She also believes these cuts are yet another by-product of the dysfunction in Washington, D.C., and the inability to appropriately prioritize national defense and national security in federal spending decisions.”

Heather Wilson, Republican candidate for the seat Bingaman is vacating, also expressed her concern over the economic effect of the job losses in Los Alamos and Rio Arriba counties. “I’m afraid it is only the beginning,” she said in a news release. “I expect there will be hundreds more jobs lost unless we change direction.”

She decried President Barack Obama’s decision to delay replacing a 60-year-old facility at Los Alamos for handling plutonium. Complaining that $500 million annually goes into NNSA administrative costs, she said, “We would be better off as a nation if most of this money were moved to programs like CMRR (Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Nuclear Facility) at Los Alamos… The priority should be science — not paying for layers of bureaucracy.”

Most jobs connected with that facility, though, were anticipated to be created in the future through construction. According to deSousa, design work will be completed, and most employees involved in that work were deployed from other sections of the lab and will be reabsorbed into the workforce.