Looks like New England has a couple of hits in the list.
New England took a major hit, and Connecticut suffered the biggest loss in terms of jobs with the proposed closure of the Submarine Base in New London, Conn. Shuttering the installation would result in the loss of 7,096 military jobs and 952 civilian jobs.
Another facility that barely made it through the previous rounds but showed up on the latest hit list was Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine, whose shutdown would affect 201 military jobs and 4,032 civilian jobs.
The Portsmouth loss will probably be painful in the seacoast area of NH and Maine. More than 4000 jobs is a big hit to this cluster of small communities. The problem with maintaining this base though is that the facilities are expensive to maintain during the winter and the types of ships that can be worked on are very limited. I worked at Portsmouth for about 6 years when I first graduated from college. Unfortunately, I don't see a lot to justify keeping this base open.
As for New London/Groton Naval base, I'm a bit surprised about this one. It is a smaller base, but it is presently the farthest north nuclear submarine base on the east coast. I'm not certain, but I think that would limit sub bases on the east coast to two. Wouldn't that be putting too many eggs in too few baskets? Not to mention, this base is very close to Electric Boat who builds and repairs these subs.
The closings are said that they will occur in 2006, but for these bases, that would probably be a little later. Nuclear facilities must go through a rather detailed survey and sample process to ensure they can be released to the public. More likely than not, this will also require the removal of some of the standing facilities on the base due to systemic low level contamination.
UPDATE: Here is a complete list [in PDF] of the closures/realignments/gains for bases by state.
As for New London/Groton Naval base, I'm a bit surprised about this one. It is a smaller base, but it is presently the farthest north nuclear submarine base on the east coast. I'm not certain, but I think that would limit sub bases on the east coast to two. Wouldn't that be putting too many eggs in too few baskets? Not to mention, this base is very close to Electric Boat who builds and repairs these subs.
The closings are said that they will occur in 2006, but for these bases, that would probably be a little later. Nuclear facilities must go through a rather detailed survey and sample process to ensure they can be released to the public. More likely than not, this will also require the removal of some of the standing facilities on the base due to systemic low level contamination.
UPDATE: Here is a complete list [in PDF] of the closures/realignments/gains for bases by state.
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