Nuclear Weapons laboratories are outpacing production sites when it comes to vaccinating their workforces, according to the most recent data shared by National Nuclear Security Administration labs, plants and sites.
At the Sandia National Laboratories, which has one of the largest workforces in the nuclear security enterprise, about 84% of the workforce had been vaccinated as of the week ended Sept. 17, a spokesperson for the Albuquerque-based labs network told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing on Monday.
In raw numbers 14,301 Sandians were vaccinated as of the week before last, the most recent period for which the labs have publicly disclosed data. The figure counts not only employees of the site management and operations contractor, the Honeywell-owned National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia, but staff augmentation contractors and student interns, among others.
Of the three nuclear weapons laboratories, Sandia has disclosed the most data about vaccinations among its workforce. The Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, the only lab at deadline to make vaccinations a condition of employment for contractor employees, said in August that more than 85% of its workforce of about 8,900 had been vaccinated against COVID-19. Triad National Security, led by the Battelle Memorial Institute with the University of California and Texas A&M University, manages the lab.
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, managed by the Bechtel National-led Lawrence Livermore National Security with the University of California, has declined to say publicly how many of its roughly 7,000 employees are vaccinated.
Of the non-laboratory National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) sites reporting data, the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., had the highest rate of vaccination at more than 75%, as of the week ended Sept. 24. That’s according to site prime Consolidated Nuclear Security, another Bechtel National-led team.
The Nevada National Security site was next, with about 70% of its roughly 2,900-strong workforce vaccinated as of Friday. That’s according to a statement from the site’s Honeywell-led prime contractor, Mission Support and Test Services.
The Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, clocked in with the lowest share of fully-vaccinated workers of any non-lab NNSA site that shares data, with Consolidated Nuclear Security reporting about 58% fully vaccinated as of the week ended Sept. 17. Pantex and Y-12 are managed under one contract.
The Kansas City National Security Campus, managed by the Honeywell-owned Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies, has declined to say how many of its 5,000 employees have been vaccinated.
On Friday, the official Safer Federal Workforce Task Force handed down a 14-page guidance that detailed how agencies should modify contracts with industry to comply with President Joe Biden’s Sept. 9 order that government contractors either receive COVID-19 vaccinations or find new jobs.
According to the guidance, contractors should be vaccinated by Dec. 8, though employers “may be required to provide an accommodation” to the mandate for those with certain medical conditions or “a sincerely held religious belief, practice, or observance.” Medical exceptions should be treated as disability requests, the guidance says, and employers “should review and consider what, if any, accommodation it must offer.”
