WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has reversed its decision to terminate hundreds of federal employees who were engaged in the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, creating confusion among workers and prompting experts to warn that DOGE’s reckless cost-cutting could jeopardize community safety.
According to three U.S. officials who spoke with The Associated Press, as many as 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration were unexpectedly laid off late Thursday. Some employees lost access to their email before they were even aware of their termination and found their offices locked upon arriving on Friday morning. The officials requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation.
The Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas, was one of the most affected offices, experiencing nearly 30% of the cuts. Those employees were engaged in reassembling warheads, making it one of the most critical roles within the nuclear weapons sector, requiring top-level security clearances.
The layoffs at NNSA were part of a broader DOGE initiative across the Department of Energy that targeted around 2,000 employees.
“The DOGE team members appear to have no understanding of the responsibilities within these departments,” 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 it involves nuclear weapons more than just being the Department of Energy.”
Late Friday, the acting director of the agency, Teresa Robbins, sent out a memo that reinstated nearly all of the terminated staff, leaving only 28 individuals without their positions.
“This letter serves as formal notification that the termination decision issued to you on Feb. 13, 2025, has been rescinded, effective immediately,” the memo read, as obtained by the AP.
These accounts from the three officials clash with an official DOE statement, which claimed that fewer than 50 NNSA employees had been let go, characterizing them as “probationary employees” who primarily held administrative roles.
However, that characterization was inaccurate. The firings spurred one NNSA senior staff member to issue a warning and call to action.
“This is a critical juncture. We must determine whether we are genuinely committed to global leadership or if we are comfortable undermining the very systems that fortify our nation’s future,” deputy division director Rob Plonski posted on LinkedIn. “The reduction of the federal workforce responsible for these vital functions could be viewed as reckless or even opportunistically adversarial.”
While some fired Energy Department employees focused on energy efficiency and climate change—areas not prioritized by the Trump administration—many others tackled nuclear-related issues, even if their work didn’t involve weapons directly. This included oversight of massive radioactive waste sites and preventing contamination from affecting nearby neighborhoods.
Some locations impacted include the Savannah River National Laboratory in Jackson, South Carolina; the Hanford Nuclear Site in Washington, where workers manage 177 high-level waste tanks created during plutonium production for atomic bombs; and the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee, a Superfund site with historical ties to the Manhattan Project.
U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio and U.S. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, both Democrats, described the firings as “utterly callous and dangerous” last week.
Following their reinstatement, not all NNSA staff could be contacted, and some were hesitant about returning to work due to the instability introduced by DOGE.
Many federal employees had dedicated their entire careers to the nation’s nuclear programs, and the agency had already experienced a wave of retirements in recent years, resulting in a significant loss of institutional knowledge.
Currently, the agency is embarking on a substantial $750 billion nuclear weapons modernization initiative, which includes the development of new land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, stealth bombers, and new submarine-launched warheads. Consequently, the labs had aggressively recruited in past years, with 60% of the workforce in 2023 having been with the agency for five years or less.
Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, expressed concern that the job cuts could disrupt the agency’s daily operations and foster instability in the nuclear program both domestically and worldwide.
“The message sent to U.S. adversaries is quite evident: create chaos within the entire national security framework,” he stated. “This situation could only be advantageous to those who oppose this country.”
