“…
The Department of Energy spent this week trying to contain the fallout from its DOGE-directed firing and rehiring of a brace of nuclear safety officials by
painting them as non-critical staff who “held primarily administrative and clerical roles.”
But this wasn’t close to true, current and recently retired NNSA employees tell
The Bulwark. In fact, one of the officials who was locked out of his work accounts was Acting Chief of Defense Nuclear Safety James Todd, a senior executive official and the top authority for all nuclear-safety matters in the agency.
… At the agency’s Los Alamos field office alone, there was the site’s emergency preparedness manager, who is responsible for maintaining plans to minimize the effects of a nuclear accident on site and in surrounding areas. There was the radiation protection manager, responsible for minimizing radiation exposure to on-site workers. There was the security manager, the fire protection engineer, and two facility representatives, who are the office’s day-to-day eyes and ears on site manufacturing facilities.
Media reports have treated the firings as a deeply unwise DOGE hatchet job that was, thankfully, quickly reversed. And it’s true that earlier this week, nearly all the affected employees were notified that they were welcome back at their jobs. But at the Los Alamos nuclear facility and across NNSA, shell-shocked employees remain unsure whether or how soon the axe might fall again. Many, sources say, are now eyeing early retirement or thinking about finding other work. …”
maybe?
