Summary
Elon Musk’s DOGE has forced out or fired over 150 employees from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), exacerbating staffing shortages.
DOGE, backed by Donald Trump, aims to cut civil service jobs but was expected to spare the NNSA due to its national security role.
Departures include top engineers, safety experts, and managers, raising nuclear safety concerns. Officials warn the loss of oversight could increase waste and fraud.
The Department of Energy claims contractors run nuclear facilities and remain unaffected.
While contractors do indeed run the facilities, the federal NNSA workers provide critical safety and accountability oversight.
Yes, nothing bad could ever happen to nuclear plants from lack of accountability and oversight.
Except nearly every nuclear incident ever, aside from maybe Fukushima.
I don’t want to give them too much credit, because frankly i think its legitimately just stupidity at play.
But, if I were a billionaire who owed an assload of money to various oil countries like Russia and Saudis, while my own businesses were failing due to everyone realizing how stupid I was… I too might be inclined to sabatoge alternative energy sources by indirectly causing an enviornmental disaster or two effectively erroding whatever is left of the public’s trust in it.
You’re not wrong, and this is happening, but it’s important to understand that the NNSA deals with nuclear weapons, not nuclear power plants (that’s the NRC).
Of course, your logic still applies - if I’m a rich asshole who sold out the country to Russia, I might be inclined to sabotage our nuclear weapon production capabilities.
This seems fine, right? It’s not like the NNSA was a veritable money black hole and struggling from multiple systemic issues before this, right? (https://www.admin.sc.gov/sites/admin/files/Documents/FMRE/NAC/LosAlamosStudyGroup.pdf)
Slashing them further definitely won’t make things much worse… Don’t get me wrong, I’m 100% pro global nuclear disarmament, but when we’re dealing with something that can kill with 30 billionths of a gram (Plutonium) maybe this chainsaw approach isn’t such a good idea…
