WASHINGTON — The Trump administration reversed course on the dismissal of hundreds of federal employees working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, leaving workers bewildered and experts warning that DOGE’s indiscriminate cost-cutting measures pose a risk to communities.
According to three U.S. officials who spoke with The Associated Press, up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were unexpectedly terminated late Thursday. Some lost email access before learning of their dismissal and arrived at their workplaces Friday morning to find themselves locked out. The officials requested anonymity due to concerns about reprisal.
The Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas, was significantly impacted, with approximately 30% of its workforce laid off. These employees work on reassembling warheads—a highly sensitive and top-security-clearance role within the nuclear weapons enterprise.
These hundreds of NNSA employees were part of a broader DOGE-led reduction of about 2,000 employees across the Department of Energy.
“The DOGE personnel lack understanding of these departments’ responsibilities,” stated Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, referring to Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency team. “They don’t seem to grasp that this is primarily a nuclear weapons department, not simply the Department of Energy.”
Late Friday night, the agency’s acting director, Teresa Robbins, issued a memo revoking the terminations for all but 28 of the dismissed staff.
“This letter formally rescinds the termination decision issued to you on February 13, 2025, effective immediately,” read the memo, obtained by the AP.
These accounts from the three officials contradict the Department of Energy’s official statement, which claimed fewer than 50 NNSA employees were let go, describing them as “probationary employees” in “primarily administrative and clerical roles.”
This discrepancy prompted an NNSA senior staffer to issue a warning and call to action.
“This is a critical juncture. We must decide if we are truly committed to global leadership or content with undermining the very systems that secure our nation’s future,” Rob Plonski, deputy division director, posted on LinkedIn. “Reducing the federal workforce responsible for these functions is at best reckless and at worst adversarily opportunistic.”
While some dismissed Energy Department employees worked on energy efficiency and climate change—areas not prioritized by the Trump Administration—many others dealt with nuclear issues, even if not directly involved in weapons programs. This includes managing substantial radioactive waste sites and ensuring the prevention of further contamination in surrounding communities.
This includes the Savannah River National Laboratory in Jackson, South Carolina; the Hanford Nuclear Site in Washington state, where workers secure 177 high-level waste tanks from the site’s previous plutonium production for the atomic bomb; and the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee, a Superfund contamination site where much of the early Manhattan Project work was conducted, among others.
U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio and U.S. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, both Democrats, denounced the firings last week as “utterly callous and dangerous.”
The reinstated NNSA staff could not all be contacted after their dismissal, and some were reconsidering their return to work, given the uncertainty caused by DOGE.
Many federal employees working on the nation’s nuclear programs had dedicated their careers to the field, and recent years saw a wave of retirements, resulting in a loss of significant institutional knowledge.
However, the agency is currently undertaking a major $750 billion nuclear weapons modernization effort—including new land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, new stealth bombers, and new submarine-launched warheads. In response, the labs have aggressively hired in recent years: In 2023, 60% of the workforce had been there five years or less.
Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, stated the firings could disrupt the agency’s operations and create instability in the nuclear program both domestically and internationally.
“The message to U.S. adversaries is quite clear: disrupt the national security apparatus and sow chaos,” he said. “This can only benefit our adversaries.”
