Los Alamos, Sandia Labs Prepare To Shut Down Amid Budget Impasse

New Mexico's two national laboratories are preparing to freeze their nonessential activities in less than two weeks in the event the federal government shutdown is still in place.

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration ordered the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Sandia National Laboratories to be ready to shut down by Oct. 21. A majority of the laboratories' 18,000 employees are at risk of being furloughed, the Albuquerque Journal News reported on Wednesday.

"If a shutdown is needed, programmatic work will not be conducted," Sandia President Paul Hommert said to laboratory employees in a Tuesday memo seen by news organizations. "Those functions that the NNSA directs us to continue will be extremely limited."