Babcock and Wilcox Company will determine the number of layoffs over the next two months after a roughly three-quarter cut in the funding of a subsidiary that designs and develops small modular nuclear reactors was announced this week.

“The anticipated employee reductions represent less than 10 percent of our total workforce in the Lynchburg area, although it’s important to emphasize that all employees are an important part of our team so the program restructuring was a difficult decision to make,” B&W spokesman Jud Simmons said in an email Wednesday.

The Charlotte, N.C.-based B&W employs about 2,400 people in the Lynchburg area, mainly in its Nuclear Operations and mPower business units.

More than 200 employees of mPower are in the Lynchburg area, with about 20 working at the Integrated System Test Facility at the Center for Advanced Engineering and Research in Bedford County and about 175 at Lynchpin Business Park in Lynchburg.