DOE's Livermore Lab Lays Off 440 Scientists

摘要

In a move that lab officials have acknowledged was partly tied to the Energy Department's recent hiring of a new operating contractor for the nuclear weapons facility, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announced last week it was laying off 440 scientists and up to 100 other workers due to shrinking federal dollars and rising costs.rnIn an all-hands speech to lab employees Tuesday, Livermore Lab Director George Miller said the cuts were "painful but necessary" to assure the lab could operate within tighter budget constraints.rnThe Livermore layoffs follow a similar down-sizing at Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories, the department's two other nuclear weapons research facilities. Los Alamos in January announced voluntary buy-outs of 570 employees, averting layoffs, and Sandia also has shed hundreds of employees.