When you fire people without understanding what they even do, you make big mistakes.
Oops, We Didn’t Mean It
CBS News reports Trump administration fires and then tries to rehire nuclear weapons workers in DOGE reversal
Late Thursday afternoon, a number probationary employees of the National Nuclear Security Administration were fired, a source in the Energy Department confirmed. This is the entity within the department that manages the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile, among other responsibilities. Three U.S. officials told The Associated Press up to 350 employees at the NNSA were abruptly laid off, with some losing access to email even before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning to find they had been locked out. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
One of the hardest hit offices was the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas, which saw about 30% of the cuts. Those employees work on reassembling warheads, one of the most sensitive jobs across the nuclear weapons enterprise, with the highest levels of clearance.
The hundreds let go at NNSA were part of a DOGE purge across the Department of Energy that targeted about 2,000 employees.
“The DOGE people are coming in with absolutely no knowledge of what these departments are responsible for,” said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, referencing Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency team. “They don’t seem to realize that it’s actually the department of nuclear weapons more than it is the Department of Energy.”
By late Friday night, the agency’s acting director, Teresa Robbins, issued a memo rescinding the firings for all but 28 of those hundreds of fired staff members.
“This letter serves as formal notification that the termination decision issued to you on Feb. 13, 2025 has been rescinded, effective immediately,” said the memo, which was obtained by the AP.
While some of the Energy Department employees who were fired dealt with energy efficiency and the effects of climate change, issues not seen as priorities by the Trump administration, many others dealt with nuclear issues, even if they didn’t directly work on weapons programs. This included managing massive radioactive waste sites and ensuring the material there doesn’t further contaminate nearby communities.
That incudes 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 work producing plutonium for the atomic bomb; and the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee, a Superfund contamination site where much of the early work on the Manhattan Project was done, among others.
Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the firings could disrupt the day-to-day workings of the agency and create a sense of instability over the nuclear program both at home and abroad.
How Many?
Three U.S. officials told The Associated Press up to 350 employees at the NNSA were fired.
On Sunday, a spokesperson for the Department of Energy confirmed with Fox News Digital that fewer than 50 employees were actually dismissed from their positions.
I suspect 50 is a lie because it reflects rescinded firings. Fox News had this discussion on the dismissals.
On Sunday, a spokesperson for the Department of Energy confirmed with Fox News Digital that fewer than 50 employees were actually dismissed from their positions.
“Less than 50 NNSA employees were dismissed. These staff members were probationary employees and held primarily administrative and clerical roles,” the DOE spokesperson said. “The Energy Department will continue its critical mission of protecting our national security and nuclear deterrence in the development, modernization, and stewardship of America’s atomic weapons enterprise, including the peaceful use of nuclear technology and nonproliferation.”
An NNSA source told Reuters that managers were called on Thursday evening to inform employees they had been let go, though on Friday they received emails saying things had suddenly changed.
How This Happened
Also consider Nuclear Agency Mass Firings
The NNSA is a semi-autonomous agency within the Department of Energy that oversees the U.S. stockpile of thousands of nuclear weapons. Despite having the words “National” and “Security” in its title, it was not getting an exemption for national security, managers at the agency were told last Friday, according to an employee at NNSA who asked not to be named, fearing retribution from the Trump administration. Just days before, officials in leadership had scrambled to write descriptions for the roughly 300 probationary employees at the agency who had joined the federal workforce less than two years ago.
Managers were given just 200 characters to explain why the jobs these workers did mattered.
It was a tall order for the relatively obscure civilian agency that conducts a wide variety of nuclear security missions, including servicing the nation’s nuclear weapons when they’re not on missiles and bombers, and making extensive safety and security upgrades of the warheads. Some workers were responsible for making sure emergency response plans were in place at sites like a giant facility in Texas, where thousands of dismantled warheads are stored. Others worked to prevent terrorists and rogue nations from acquiring weapons-grade plutonium or uranium. Many had “Q” clearances, the highest level security clearance at the Department of Energy.
The Department of Energy’s press office did not respond to repeated requests by NPR for comment.
In the final days leading up to the firings, managers drew up lists of essential workers and pleaded to keep them.
In the end, it didn’t matter. On Thursday, officials were told that the vast majority of the exemptions they had asked for were denied by the Trump administration.
Multiple current and former employees at the agency told NPR that scores of people were notified verbally they were fired. Many had to clear out their desks on the spot. “It broke my heart,” says one employee who was among those who left the agency’s Washington, D.C., headquarters.
On Friday, an employee still at NNSA told NPR that the firings are now “paused,” in part because of the chaotic way in which they unfolded. Another employee had been contacted and told that their termination had been “rescinded.” But some worried the damage had already been done. Nuclear security is highly specialized, high-pressure work, but it’s not particularly well paid, one employee told NPR. Given what’s unfolded over the past 24 hours, “why would anybody want to take these jobs?” they asked.
Question of Authority
The employees received the recension emails after their access to emails had been cut off. Smart.
By the way, DOGE has no authority to do anything but make recommendations, some of them were obviously bad.
Strange Quiet
- Republican Senators and Representatives are strangely quiet.
- The Department of Energy is quiet.
- DOGE is quiet.
No one wants to discuss why approximately 350 employees were fired only to rescind all but 50.
I would want to sweep this under the rug too.
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Legal Amateur Hour
On February 9, I offered this warning: The Elon Musk Sponsored, Ted Mack Legal Amateur Hour
The problem with the DOGE approach is the mission may backfire spectacularly.
We just had one example. And many cases are tied up in court, especially USAID.
Had DOGE proceeded with USAID on a case-by-case basis we would not be in this situation.
It’s the same with the NNSA.