About 200 Workers Face Layoffs At Hanford

An additional 200 workers will be laid off at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation this year, completing the total of 4,774 job cuts announced in December 1994, U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings said Thursday.

But the U.S. Department of Energy, which had been considering several hundred additional layoffs this year, has agreed with Washington Congress members not to take that action, Hastings said.

“This is tremendous news for our community, which has been battered by DOE layoffs in recent months,” Hastings said.

Hanford employment has dropped from 18,400 workers in 1994 to about 14,000 now, the DOE said.

The agency will also consider an early retirement option if more cuts are needed next year, Hastings said.

The Hanford work force has been dropping as the site moves away from its past history of making plutonium for nuclear weapons and now tries to clean up a huge volume of nuclear waste.