The federal government is shutting down a historic facility at Argonne National Laboratory and ordering “major staff reductions” at the lab this year.

Argonne Director Robert Rosner said in a memo to staff last week the cuts stem from unexpected reductions in Washington brought about by the Congressional budget appropriations bill passed in December.

Argonne’s news followed the announcement of similar cuts at Batavia-based Fermilab, which learned in late December it will have to lay off as many as 200 employees due to cuts.

Rosner said in a Jan. 3 memo Argonne is waiting for specifics from the Department of Energy, which operates the lab, but he said “it is certain” there will be major layoffs at the Intense Pulse Neutron Source this year. No specific numbers were given regarding the amount of layoffs.

The IPNS, which has operated since 1981, was designated a Nuclear Historic Landmark in 2001. Rosner said Argonne officials expected it to be closed during the next few years but were surprised by the sudden year-end close order.

The immediate shutdown of the IPNS, Rosner said, ends “an era of neutron source development stemming directly from Enrico Fermi’s demonstration of the first self-sustaining fission reaction at the University of Chicago’s Stagg Field in 1942.”

The $550 billion Congressional appropriations bill, which includes regular funding for domestic programs and $70 billion in emergency war funding, essentially keeps overall 2008 funding flat with last year.

Even Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source, the nation’s premier X-ray light source, will have to be scaled back, said Argonne spokesman Stephen McGregor.

“But it’s certainly not going to be closed,” McGregor added.

Rosner said the cutbacks might have a negative effect on scientific morale at the lab, but he said the lab would prevail over the setback.

“We have been tested in the past and have not only survived, but thrived,” Rosner said. “I have the utmost faith in the ability of our people and the mission of the laboratory.”