OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (Nov. 25, 2020)
– Today the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security
Administration “informed” the City of Oak Ridge in an email that the
agency is awarding a contract to Nuclear Fuel Services in Erwin,
Tennessee for work that is currently being performed at the Y-12
National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Oak
Ridge Mayor Warren Gooch stated, “The Department of Energy has reverted
to its old habit of ‘Decide, Announce, and Defend,’ making major
decisions about the largest employer in our community without any
warning or prior consultation with the City of Oak Ridge. To announce
loss of mission and jobs at the Y-12 National Security Complex in the
middle of a pandemic and the day before the
Thanksgiving Holiday is highly inappropriate and insensitive to the
skilled workers who will be losing their jobs as a result of relocating
this work to Erwin, Tennessee. We are asking our congressional
leadership to oppose this move.”
City
Manager Mark Watson added, “These federal changes to the workforce in
the greater Oak Ridge area deserve more clarity and scrutiny. The
federal government has invested billions in the modernization of the
Y-12 complex, which is now designated the Nation’s Uranium Center of
Excellence. The City itself is preparing further investment in the NNSA
facilities with a new $45 million water
treatment plant. The impacts of this change as a ‘demonstration
contract’ is a change affecting all of us through jobs and economic
benefits, which must not impact our city and region permanently.”
No comments:
Post a Comment