The first round of layoff notices for employees of the now-permanently shuttered San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station went out yesterday (June 26). Six hundred non-union employees at the plant were handed walking papers, and another 500 jobs will be slashed from the current workforce of 1,500, mostly union employees in the coming year.

“The premature shutdown of San Onofre is very unfortunate,” said Pete Dietrich, senior vice president and chief nuclear officer at plant operator Southern California Edison. “We have an extraordinary team of men and women. We appreciate their years of dedicated service and will continue to extend to them the utmost respect and consideration.”

Edison will meet later with representatives from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and the Utility Workers Union of America, which represent the unionized workforce on site, to discuss further layoffs. The company has said it will host a job fair for displaced workers.

A core crew of several hundred workers is expected to remain on site indefinitely, as full decommissioning of the plant will take years and as yet there still exists no plan to relocate tons of radioactive nuclear waste generated during the plant’s decades of operation.