They handled the safe transport of nuclear materials – a dangerous and rigorous job that requires rigorous training. Four of them left the National Nuclear Security Agency after receiving an offer to buy the Trump administration.
Half a dozen staff members left the unit to the agency building nuclear reactors for nuclear submarines.
And recently, biochemists and engineers who joined the agency as head of a team implementing safety and environmental standards at the Texas plant that assembles nuclear warheads have been fired.
In the past six weeks, only one of the relatively small forward posts in the federal workforce that President Trump and his top adviser Elon Musk are aiming to dramatically defeat it, has lost a huge executive of scientists, engineers, safety experts, project officers, accountants and lawyers.
Chronic understaffed, but extremely important, nuclear agencies are the busiest since the Cold War. It not only manages the country's 3,748 nuclear bombs and warheads, but it modernizes its Arsenal. This is a $200 billion annual effort to arm a new fleet of nuclear submarines, bombers and land missiles.
Since the last year of the first Trump administration, agencies have been desperately trying to build staff to handle additional workloads. It wasn't something that he said he needed hundreds of employees yet, but by January it had taken up to about 2,000 workers.
Now, with the Trump administration's takeover and firing, the agency's trajectory has been withdrawn from one of its laborious growth.
More than 130 employees have received offers to resign to resign from government offers to pay, according to internal agency documents that the New York Times had not previously reported. These departures wiped out most of the recent staffing benefits, along with the departure of around 27 workers who were caught up in mass firing and not re-employed.
The agency, hiding in the energy sector and working in secret jobs, usually stays under the public radar. But it emerges as an example of the Trump administration's cut headline, touted as a cure that appears to be expected of government luxuries and corruption, threatening the muscles and bones with national security or other duties at the heart of federal responsibility.
“We're excited to announce that we're a sought-after nuclear material security program,” said Scott Locker, vice president of the Nuclear Materials Security Program for the nonprofit Nuclear Threat Initiative. “These were very skilled, very successful, very well trained people, and they did complex, niche jobs.”
On the departure, there are at least 27 engineers, 13 program or project analysts, 12 program or project managers, 6 budget analysts or accountants, 5 physicists or scientists, lawyers, compliance officers, and engineers.
The agency lost not only officials deeply ingrained in the arms modernization program, but also notable weapons management experts as President Trump wanted to resume talks with Russia and China on nuclear weapon restrictions.
“We're building new nuclear weapons here, and they're building nuclear weapons,” Trump said last month in his Oval office. “We all spend a lot of money that we can spend on other things.”
“Contrary to news reports, the Energy Department's nuclear weapons production plants and nuclear laboratories are operated by federal contractors and are exempt,” said Ben Motreich, chief spokesman for the Department of Energy.
However, multiple current and former staff members of the agency said the loss of staff would hinder the agency's ability to monitor more than 60,000 contracted employees to perform much of the agency's work. It could promote taxpayer dollar fraud or misuse, rather than limiting it, as Trump and Musk have pledged to the new Department of Government Efficiency initiative.
“Federal oversight is essential,” said Corey Hindertin, assistant administrator for the agency's non-proliferation under President Joseph R. Biden Jr. “Do you have a construction project in your home? You don't just say to the contractor: “I want something like this room. Enjoy.'”
“We're excited to announce that our energy department spokesperson Andrea Woods said in a statement: “The NNSA is committed to continuing its critical national security mission through the development, modernization and stewardship of the development of America's nuclear deterrence and non-proliferation and counterterrorism.”
The department says most of the fired employees handled administrative and administrative tasks that were not important to the administration of the agency. However, an analysis of the internal documents by The Times, coupled with interviews with 18 current and former institutional officials, shows that this is not the case for most of those who made the acquisition.
Many who left hold the finest security clearance known as the Q, which gave them access to information on how nuclear weapons are designed, produced and used, officials said. This offer allowed me to pay by September and take administrative leave by resignation.
“Star Performer”
The disproportionate number of the roughly 75,000 federal workers that have so far acquired across the government is in demand in the private sector and becomes difficult to replace, according to Max Stier, a nonprofit researching governance researcher, according to Max Stier, president and CEO of Public Services Partnerships.
“It's going to be a star performer with the best opportunity to leave and go into the private sector,” said Ernest J. Moniz, who served as energy secretary under President Barack Obama.
The Defense Programs Bureau, the agency responsible for modernization efforts, has lost its Chief of Staff, Ian Dinesen. He made the acquisition. Also was Charles P. Kosak, a senior adviser who served as deputy director in both the defense and energy departments.
Kyle Fowler, director of the program to enrich uranium used in naval submarine warheads and reactors, worked for NATO. There was also Linda Cordero, director of a programme that modernizes the production of radioactive plutonium spheres mounted on warheads.
A field office that oversees the agency's lab in Los Alamos, New Mexico, where the plutonium pit is made, according to documents reviewed by The Times. The budget was set for 97 employees in the fiscal year that ended last September, and currently operates with 76 employees.
Terry C. Wallace Jr., who ran the institute in 2018, said he had implemented some of the agency's most risky businesses. He said the government is ultimately responsible for both ensuring the safety of its people and allowing them to proceed. He is “very certain” and government staff “has a negative impact on operations,” he added.
Y-12, a factory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where uranium for next-generation nuclear weapons is being disposed of, has already undergone a major $4 billion overhaul on a $4 billion budget. The field office lost four employees and is currently running alongside 84 of the 92 staff members who were budgeted.
Five other staff members will leave the Agency Field Office in Las Vegas to oversee a site about the same size as Rhode Island, where nuclear tests will be conducted to help scientists determine the safety and feasibility of nuclear reserves. According to his LinkedIn profile, one person was in the senior role of facility representatives for 14 years. The field office has 67 people, budgeted for 82 staff.
Jill Fulby, who headed the National Nuclear Security Agency during the Biden administration, said:
Hurriedly fired
The agency staff, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of job consequences, says they don't expect to be allowed to hire them, even if they can find people suitable for the vacant seats.
And there could be more cuts. The agency was ordered by last Thursday to create plans to further force reductions and submit them to the Human Resources Administration.
Anyway, some of the agency workers who left were on the verge of resignation. However, due to the sudden sudden departure offers, several former staff members said these employees were not getting the opportunity to properly prepare for the replacement. Even junior employees at agencies can take a year to train, officials said.
“Who is going to teach those new people?” said one senior official who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of putting his resignation in danger. “Who is coaching them, who is trying to speed them up?”
The situation may have gotten worse.
In mid-February, more than 300 probation employees at the agency were notified that they would be fired. All but about 27 of these shootings were cancelled after Congress members complained to new energy secretary Chris Wright.
Among those who protested were Sen. Deb Fisher, a Republican Nebraska, and Sen. Angus King, who is not dependent on Maine. Both serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
After repeatedly discussing the shooting with Wright, King said he questioned how involved Wright was in his decision to fire. Wright says he moved too quickly to approve the fire.
“This whole process of trying to reduce government is being handled in the slowest, most irresponsible way you can imagine,” King said.
Authorities initially expected that the nuclear agency's national security mission would protect it from layoffs. More than 100,000 federal employees have been fired or accepted acquisitions so far, but the majority of cuts have been in agencies that are not directly linked to national security.
Nuclear agencies have struggled for years due to a shortage of personnel, according to the government's Accountability Office, a federal watchdog. In a 2022 report, the nuclear agency said it faces “an incredible workforce appeal and retention issues.” One problem is that agents compete with the private sector more than workers, including the agency's own contractors. The other is to find people for such highly specialized jobs.
Authorities were so concerned about the loss of employees transporting nuclear materials that more than half of the workers signed up to the acquisition were rejected, according to agency documents.
“We were already putting personnel there,” said Hindertin, a former deputy representative at the agency. “How can you protect nuclear weapons on the roads to people with very high security skills and are willing to become head truck drivers for a long time?”
Did you work for the National Nuclear Security Agency? We look forward to hearing from you.
I'd like to hear about your experiences as I look into the shootings and acquisitions at agencies and the impact they had. We may reach out to you about your submission, but we will not publish some of your responses without contacting you first.
Brad Plumer contributed to the report from Washington. Kitty Bennett contributed to the research.
