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The National Nuclear Safety Administration was struggling Friday to rehire some of the nation’s top nuclear specialists after they were fired by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency in an apparent massive mistake, according to reports that triggered security fears.
Sources told CNN that DOGE staffers apparently did not realize that the agency oversees America’s nuclear weapons stockpile when the employees were fired Thursday. The terminations were quickly rescinded Friday, CNN reported.
The workers were fired because “no one” had “taken any time to understand what we do and the importance of our work to the nation’s national security,” one source told CNN.
As many as 400 workers from the NNSA were fired within a broader employee termination at the Energy Department as part of Musk’s government cost slashing, sources told CNN and Bloomberg News.
“Congress is freaking out because it appears DOGE didn’t really realize NNSA oversees the nuclear stockpile,” another source told CNN.
“The nuclear deterrent is the backbone of American security and stability – period. For there to be any even very small holes poked even in the maintenance of that deterrent should be extremely frightening to people,” the source added.
NNSA employees are responsible for designing and maintaining the nation’s nuclear weapons, as well as for producing and dismantling the weapons, providing the Navy with nuclear reactors for submarines, and responding to nuclear emergencies. The agency also plays a critical role in counter-terrorism and transporting nuclear weapons around the nation.
In addition, employees at NNSA headquarters write requirements and guidelines for contractors who build nuclear weapons.
The NNSA is now seeking to recall the workers because they deal with sensitive national security secrets, sources told Bloomberg.
A spokesperson for the Energy Department insisted to CNN that only about 50 NNSA employees were fired, and they mostly held “administrative” roles.
Jill Hruby, who served as the NNSA administrator during the Biden administration, told Bloomberg that the cuts are particularly concerning because the positions usually require high-level security clearances and extensive training of at least 18 months.
She’s convinced “these people are likely never going to come back and work for the government. The indiscriminate layoffs of people will be really difficult for the coming years,” Hruby said.
Musk’s wholesale slashing of the federal workforce has been plagued by chaos. He has a young crew of techies who have little work experience and are overwhelmed by the challenges to understand the wide range of tasks performed by employees in many different and complex federal agencies in a matter of days.
A federal worker at a Virginia town hall meeting complained last month that veteran employees at different agencies were given 15-minute sessions to justify their jobs to “19-, 20- and 21-year-olds.” One of Musk’s crew is a high school grad and college drop out who was fired from an internship after leaking sensitive information to company rival.
The logistics of the firings have also been mangled.
Some workers at the Small Business Administration earlier this week were told they were being fired, then received a second message telling them that their jobs were safe. That was followed by a third message telling them that they were being fired, Bloomberg reported.
