U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright at Oak Ridge National Laboratory on Friday, Feb. 28, 2025, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

The agency responsible for designing, building, maintaining and securing U.S. nuclear weapons is facing staff furloughs and its contractors will soon experience mass layoffs due to the federal government shutdown, Energy Secretary Chris Wright told USA TODAY.

The National Nuclear Security Administration, or NNSA, plays a central role in the country's $1.7 trillion push to modernize the nuclear arsenal. Fewer than 2,000 federal employees at the agency oversee more than 60,000 contractors who do the hands-on work for testing, laboratory and production efforts across the US.

"Starting next week, we're going to have to let go tens of thousands ... of workers that are critical to our national security," said Wright of the NNSA contractor workforce. The secretary spoke to USA TODAY in an Oct. 16 phone interview.

Portions of the agency's federal workforce received notice that furloughs could begin as soon as Oct. 17, according to three agency employees who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Department of Energy press secretary Ben Dietderich told USA TODAY that the department is "working very hard to push these furlough dates" by reprogramming funds, but he confirmed that NNSA federal staff furloughs could begin "as soon as (Friday)" or "as late as Monday."

Wright emphasized that safety, security and emergency personnel will remain on duty. "We're going to keep the existing arsenal intact and safe," he said.

Impact on strained nuclear workforce, modernization

But the secretary warned that the further destabilization of the highly skilled nuclear workforce could cause the agency to lose talent it desperately needs to get its portions of the nuclear modernization program back on track.

"We do not want to lose experienced people .... if you lay off people, and your job is uncertain, (the agency and its contractor-run facilities) become a less attractive place to work," Wright acknowledged ahead of the shutdown-induced layoffs and furloughs. He said he hoped to allay workers' concerns by addressing them directly during visits to NNSA sites "early next week."

The NNSA workforce entered the spotlight in mid-February when more than 300 employees were mistakenly fired and then rapidly rehired. A USA TODAY investigation published in May detailed how the agency's long-running struggle to hire federal workers has exacerbated safety concerns as well as delays and cost overruns on major projects.

Lawmakers responded to the instability by grilling NNSA officials in hearings and teeing up legislation that would make it harder to fire the agency's federal employees.

Congress is also scrutinizing one of NNSA's most beleaguered efforts: reestablishing mass production of plutonium pits, the explosive cores of modern nuclear weapons. The project, which is more than a decade old, calls for sweeping renovations to the aging plutonium facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, and the conversion of an unfinished facility (leftover from a failed multibillion-dollar plutonium processing project) at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.

Deputy Energy Secretary James Danly directed an internal review of the pit production project in August. Asked about the ongoing review, Wright said it is "too early" to discuss its findings or potential actions in response.

Dylan Spaulding, a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists and nuclear weapons expert, told USA TODAY that even long-term modernization projects are jeopardized by the "damage that this is inflicting on the workforce" by making the department and NNSA look like "less reliable employers."

"(The layoffs and furloughs) certainly will not help attract and retain the people they need to do these programs," Spaulding said.

Speaking in a similar vein, Wright said the prospect of losing experienced workers engaged in modernization projects like plutonium pit production "keeps me up at night."

Davis Winkie's role covering nuclear threats and national security at USA TODAY is supported by a partnership with Outrider Foundation and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Layoffs begin Monday for nuclear weapons workforce, Energy Secretary says

Reporting by Davis Winkie and Cybele Mayes-Osterman, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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