A deep dive investigation by the New York Times has exposed the extent to which the Trump administration — and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency — has slashed a top-secret nuclear agency.
Internal documents seen by the Times show more than 130 workers at the National Nuclear Security Administration took the government's offer of a buyout. Another 27 were caught in mass firings that have swept through the federal workforce.
Among them are people who handled transportation of nuclear materials, built nuclear submarine reactors and oversaw safety standards at a plant that makes nuclear warheads.
In just six weeks, the Times reported, the agency, “has lost a huge cadre of scientists, engineers, safety experts, project officers, accountants and lawyers — all in the midst of its most ambitious endeavors in a generation.
“ … Engaged in top-secret work, tucked away in the Energy Department, the agency typically stays below the public radar. But it has emerged as a headline example of how the Trump administration’s cuts, touted as a cure-all for supposed government extravagance and corruption, are threatening the muscle and bone of operations that involve national security or other missions at the very heart of the federal government’s responsibilities.”
Workers lost include more than 27 engineers, 13 project analysts, 12 program or project managers, six accountants, five physicists or scientists, as well as attorneys, compliance officers and technologists
While much of the agency’s work is done by contractors, the cuts mean that many of those that monitor that workforce have gone.
“The federal oversight is vital,” said Corey Hinderstein, a former deputy administrator for nonproliferation at the agency.
“Do you have any construction projects at your house? You wouldn’t just say to the contractor: ‘I want something like this room. Have fun.’”
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Trump’s Energy Department has claimed that most cut employees handled administrative tasks, but the Times investigation found “that is not true for the bulk of people who took the buyout.
“Many who left held a top-secret security clearance, called Q, that gave them access to information about how nuclear weapons are designed, produced and used, officials said.”
And the firings mean it would be impossible to replace workers, if the decision was made to backtrack.
“Who’s going to teach those new people?” one official who took the buyout and spoke with the Times said. “Who’s going to mentor them, and who’s going to bring them up to speed?”