DOGE Fires 350 Nuclear Weapons Workers at NNSA, Including Pantex Warhead Assemblers

What Happened

On February 13, 2025, the Department of Government Efficiency fired approximately 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration, the agency responsible for maintaining and securing the United States nuclear weapons stockpile. The firings were part of a broader DOGE purge targeting roughly 2,000 Department of Energy employees.

The cuts hit some of the most sensitive positions in the entire federal government. At the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas — the only facility in the United States where nuclear warheads are assembled and disassembled — approximately 100 employees were abruptly terminated, representing about 30% of the total NNSA cuts. These workers held the highest security clearances and performed the most sensitive tasks in the nuclear weapons enterprise.

Among those fired were a key biochemist and an engineer responsible for enforcing safety and environmental standards at Pantex. Workers managing massive radioactive waste sites at the Savannah River National Laboratory, a 310-square-mile Department of Energy nuclear facility in South Carolina, were also terminated. Some employees lost email access before they had even been notified they were fired.

The Reversal

The backlash was immediate and bipartisan. As news broke that DOGE had fired the people who assemble nuclear warheads, congressional leaders from both parties raised alarms. By late Friday night, February 14, acting NNSA director Teresa Robbins issued a memo rescinding the firings for all but 28 of the terminated employees.

The reversal did not undo the damage. Workers who had already turned in badges and had security access revoked had to go through reprocessing. The institutional disruption — at facilities where continuity, trust, and institutional knowledge are prerequisites for safe nuclear weapons handling — was significant.

"Absolutely No Knowledge"

The Arms Control Association's executive director stated publicly that "the DOGE people are coming in with absolutely no knowledge of what these departments are responsible for." This assessment was borne out by the facts: DOGE applied the same mass termination template to the nuclear weapons complex that it applied to every other agency, without distinguishing between administrative overhead and the people who physically handle nuclear warheads.

Why This Is Classified Critical

This incident receives a critical severity classification because:

• Nuclear weapons security: The fired workers were directly responsible for the safety, security, and reliability of the US nuclear stockpile. Even a brief disruption to these operations creates risks that cannot be understated.
• Indiscriminate approach: DOGE fired nuclear warhead assemblers, safety engineers, and radioactive waste managers using the same mass-termination process applied across all agencies, demonstrating zero understanding of which positions are critical to national security.
• Speed of reversal proves the error: The fact that all but 28 of 350 firings were rescinded within 24 hours confirms the firings were not based on any assessment of which positions were necessary.
• Lasting institutional damage: The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists documented ongoing damage to recruitment, morale, and institutional knowledge at nuclear facilities. Workers who saw colleagues fired for doing essential nuclear security work have reason to question whether the government values their expertise.

National Security Implications

Senator Ed Markey wrote to Energy Secretary Chris Wright that the firings "jeopardized the security of the U.S. nuclear stockpile and weakened the ability to detect and prevent threats to those weapons." The NNSA is responsible not only for assembling warheads but for detecting nuclear threats, preventing nuclear proliferation, and managing the environmental legacy of decades of nuclear weapons production.

The Washington Post's March 2 investigation detailed how the firings "detonated a crisis" at the agency, with lasting consequences for the nuclear weapons enterprise that extend well beyond the workers who were briefly terminated.