KNOXVILLE -- More than 600 engineers and support staff involved in the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant project are receiving layoff notices as engineering design work to finish construction of the unit 2 reactor there is nearing completion, the Tennessee Valley Authority announced today. According to information reported to the state’s Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Bechtel Power Corp., the lead engineering, procurement and construction contractor on the project, is laying off 343 employees that worked out of TVA’s East Tower at 400 W. Summit Hill Drive in downtown Knoxville and 272 more at the project site in Spring City. The lay-offs will take effect March 1 through Sept. 30.
Jim Allen, TVA spokesman, said the number of employees working on the project will begin to decline as the engineering design phase is wrapped up.
“Some of the engineers and staff released from the Watts Bar project will be reassigned to other engineering work for their employers,” he said.
Allen said the engineering staff completed approximately 2.5 million man-hours of design work in 28 months, producing more than 500 design plans and 2,250 calculations.
“There may be opportunities for the workers to use their experience from this project to support other future TVA projects or ongoing operations,” Allen said.
