Experts have warned that blind cost cutting by the Department of Government Efficacy (DOGE) could put communities at risk, after hundreds of nuclear weapons program workers had their job terminations rescinded by the Trump administration.
According to the Associated Press, around 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration had been laid off Thursday, leaving workers confused when they discovered they had lost their security clearances before being told they had been fired.
Workers at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, who reassemble nuclear warheads and have some of the highest levels of security clearance, had approximately 30% of their workers cut, while NNSA had hundreds of workers fired by DOGE across the Department of Energy. In total, around 2,000 employees had been targeted.
Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, told the AP that DOGE — which is headed by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk — have no idea what these departments actually do.
“The DOGE people are coming in with absolutely no knowledge of what these departments are responsible for,” Kimball said. “They don’t seem to realize that it’s actually the department of nuclear weapons more than it is the Department of Energy.”
On Friday night, the AP further reported the agency’s acting director Teresa Robbins had issued a memo to the staff, rescinding their firings and reinstating all but 28.
“This letter serves as formal notification that the termination decision issued to you on Feb. 13, 2025, has been rescinded, effective immediately,” the memo said.
Rob Plonski, a deputy division director at the NNSA, reportedly posted on his LinkedIn that the firings undermined the nation’s security.
“This is a pivotal moment. We must decide whether we are truly committed to leading on the world stage or if we are content with undermining the very systems that secure our nation’s future,” Plonski wrote. “Cutting the federal workforce responsible for these functions may be seen as reckless at best and adversarily opportunistic at worst.”
Director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, Edwin Lyman, said the firings could disrupt say-to-day agency functions.
“I think the signal to U.S. adversaries is pretty clear: throw a monkey wrench in the whole national security apparatus and cause disarray,” Lyman said. “That can only benefit the adversaries of this country.”
