An N3B chart shows the breakdown of the dollar amounts the company has awarded to businesses within the state since the inception of the contract in Fiscal Year 2018. Courtesy image

BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com

Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos, LLC, known as N3B, currently has an overall headcount of some 621 employees on their 10-year, $1.4 billion contract to clean up legacy waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory. Legacy waste is waste that was generated prior to 1999.

N3B is owned by HII Nuclear, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries, and BWX Technologies. The company’s two major subcontractors on the LANL contract are Tech2 Solutions and Longenecker & Associates. 

N3B’s Human Resources Manager Tashia Vigil recently updated the Northern New Mexico Citizens Advisory Board on the company’s LANL workforce numbers. Vigil began working at LANL in 1993 and in 2018 made the decision to move her career to N3B.

“I believe in the mission of removing waste from the hill safely and efficiently as well as protecting our environment,” she told the board.

N3B’s workforce currently is 436 employees who work exclusively as N3B employees and of those, 399 are from New Mexico with 37 hired from out of state.

“Looking forward into this year, we plan to hire an additional 35 employees. Some of our more critical positions that we will be looking to fill are radiation protection, industrial hygienists and also project control,” Vigil said.

In addition to the employees who work exclusively for N3B, some 151 employees that work for various subcontractors on the contract. There are also 24 employees who are assisting the program through N3B’s parent companies Huntington Ingalls Industries and BWXT.

Vigil noted that N3B is committed to partnering with New Mexico businesses and that in 2020 alone, the company spent some $21 million in the state with a little more than $3 million in Northern New Mexico.

As part of its Community Commitment Program, N3B has created a workforce development which allows them to develop well-paid and highly skilled jobs in the local economy. The three major initiatives they are utilizing are a nuclear operator apprenticeship program, a radiological control technician boot camp and a waste processing operator boot camp.  A total of 26 students have gone through these programs and become full-time N3B employees,” Vigil said.

Career opportunities at varied  levels are posted on the N3B website at https://jobs2.smartsearchonline.com/N3B/jobs/.