B&W LAYS OFF ALL 122 WORKERS AT OAK RIDGE CENTRIFUGE MANUFACTURING PLANT

The blueprint for how the American Centrifuge Project will be reshaped is not yet finished, but the impacts are already being felt in Oak Ridge. Babcock &Wilcox, one of the companies involved in manufacturing centrifuge machines for the project, confirmed that all 122 B&W employees who earlier this year received WARN notices will be laid off. “We are in the process of demobilizing, which includes out-processing employees,” Aimee Mills, a spokeswoman at B&W headquarters in Charlotte, N.C., said in an email response to questions.

Mills said the layoffs are being carried out in phases, but she said all employees would be paid through May 19. That’s the date that meets the 60-day warning period required by the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. Oak Ridge has been the manufacturing hub for the ACP, with B&W and USES Inc. working as partners on the American Centrifuge Manufacturing LLC and produced the advanced centrifuge machines as needed. USEC previously had a 55 percent stake in ACM (with B&W holding 45 percent) but has now taken 100 percent control. It’s not clear whether the Oak Ridge manufacturing center will continue operations, with USEC now working under a subcontract to Oak Ridge National Laboratory. USEC spokesman Paul Jacobson said the effort “will be significantly smaller if anything at all.” While all of the B&W employees received layoff notices, fewer than 10 USEC employees in Oak Ridge have been laid off so far.