Nuclear weapons woes: Understaffed nuke agency hit by DOGE and safety worries

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

In 2021, after a pair of plutonium-handling gloves had broken for the third time at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, contaminating three workers, and after the second accidental flood, investigators from the National Nuclear Security Administration found a common thread in a plague of safety incidents: the contractor running the New Mexico lab lacked “sufficient staff.”

So did the NNSA.

The agency, whose fewer than 1,900 federal employees oversee the more than 60,000 contractors who build and maintain the U.S. nuclear arsenal, has struggled to fill crucial safety roles. Only 21% of the agency’s facility representative positions – the government’s eyes and ears in contractor-run buildings – at Los Alamos were filled with qualified personnel as of May 2022.

Now, President Donald Trump’s administration has thrown the NNSA into chaos, threatening hard-won staffing progress amid a trillion-dollar nuclear weapons upgrade. Desperately needed nuclear experts are wary of joining thanks to chaotic job cuts by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, experts say.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/nuclear-weapons-woes-understaffed-nuke-172019595.html

I thought they had rehired those who were cut.

[LiberalLoner]

1. It is extremely hard to attract qualified people at that level, and doge abuse and chaos and the chaos of

This regime in general, is causing a real brain drain, so the situation will get worse.