The Trump administration’s mass firings at the civilian agency overseeing the US nuclear weapons stockpile led to confusion and chaos over the past two days before the sacking were paused on Friday, a report said.
According to a report by NPR, which was among the media organisations recently told to vacate their office spaces within the Pentagon’s Correspondents' Corridor, officials at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were instructed to fire hundreds of employees within hours.
Workers found themselves locked out of their email accounts as termination notices arrived.
The dismissals were part of a broader round of firings at the Department of Energy, where over a thousand federal workers were reportedly let go.
The move was a result of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative, aimed at cutting the federal workforce and reducing what Musk and President Donald Trump described as excessive government spending.
The NNSA, a semi-autonomous agency within the Department of Energy, is responsible for maintaining the US nuclear stockpile, among other security missions. Managers at the agency were informed last Friday that no exemptions would be granted for national security considerations, NPR reported.
Days before the mass firings, officials had scrambled to provide job descriptions for approximately 300 probationary employees, who had been in the federal workforce for less than two years.
Managers were given only 200 characters to justify the necessity of these positions.
The agency handles a range of critical functions, including servicing nuclear warheads, upgrading safety mechanisms, and preventing terrorists and rogue states from acquiring weapons-grade plutonium or uranium. Many employees held “Q” clearances, the highest level of security clearance at the Department of Energy, NPR stated.
In the days leading up to the firings, managers compiled lists of essential personnel and made urgent pleas to retain them. These efforts were largely unsuccessful. According to the NPR report, most exemption requests were denied, and numerous employees were fired verbally, with many required to clear their desks immediately. "It broke my heart," said an employee who was among those who left the agency's Washington headquarters.
Following the terminations, confusion ensued. Employees were told they would receive official termination letters, but while some did, others did not.
A letter seen by NPR read in part: "Per OPM [Office of Personnel Management] instructions, DOE finds that your further employment would not be in the public interest."
An employee described the experience as disorienting: "Nobody knows if they're fired or not."
On Friday, NPR reported that the firings had been "paused," in part due to the disorganised manner in which they were executed. Some employees were later contacted and informed that their termination had been rescinded.
However, concerns remained. "Why would anybody want to take these jobs?" one employee asked.
